Sheriff Modern Usage United States Scotland City Of London

In the United States a sheriff is generally the highest elected law-enforcement officer of a county. The political election of a person to serve as a police leader is a uniquely American tradition. All law-enforcement officers working for the agency headed by a sheriff are called sheriff's deputies or deputy sheriffs and are so called because they are deputized by the sheriff to perform the same duties as him or her. They may be subdivided into general deputies and special deputies .

In the US, the relationship between the sheriff and other police departments varies widely from state to state, and indeed in some states from county to county. In some counties, the sheriff can be the most powerful figure, but in other jurisdictions the sheriff may do little more than keep the jail, transport prisoners, and/or provide courthouse security.

Many US cities and some counties have a chief of police who is the actual head of the police department. The chief of police is usually not an elected office.

In many US jurisdictions, the sheriff also has duties with regard to service of process and summonses that are issued by state courtThis article is about courts of law . For alternative meanings see: Court (disambiguation). A court is an official, public forum which a public power establishes by lawful authority to adjudicate disputes, and to dispense civil, labour, administrative ands. The sheriff also often conducts auctionAn auction is the process of buying and selling things by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder. In economic theory an auction is a method for determining the value of a commodity that has an undetermined o sales of real propertyReal property is a type of property differentiated from personal property. Real property is generally a term used in anglo-american common law jurisdictions as opposed to immovable property in civil law jurisdictions immobilier in French, or heritable pro in foreclosureForeclosure is the legal proceeding in which a bank or other creditor gets the deed on a piece of real property due to the owner default of their promissory note. In most common law states, there are two sorts of foreclosure: "strict foreclosure," in whic in many jurisdictions, and is often also empowered to conduct seizures of chattel property that is being seized to satisfy a judgmentJudgment or judgement implies a balanced weighing up of evidence preparatory to making a decision. A formal process of evaluation applies. A judgement is expressed as a statement, e. S1: 'A is B' and is usually the outcome of an evaluation of alternatives.

Connecticut abolished sheriffs by popular referendum im 2002. Hawai has the Sheriff of Hawaii, who is part of the Hawaii Department of Public SafetyIn certain governments, the Department of Public Safety is the government umbrella agency which serves to assist the various bureaus, agencies, and offices in the delivery of their services by providing administrative, financial, and technical services an.

The federal equivalent to the office of sheriff is the United States Marshals ServiceThe United States Marshals Service part of the United States Department of Justice, is the United States' oldest federal law enforcement agency. Their mission is to protect the Federal courts and ensure the effective operation of the judicial system., an agency of the Department of Justice: there is one U.S. Marshal for each federal judicial district(94 total); the Marshal and his or her deputies are responsible for the transport of prisoners and security for the United States District Courts, and also issue and enforce certain civil process.

1.2 Scotland

In Scotland a sheriff is a judge in the second tier court, called the Sheriff Court. The sheriff is a professional judge in comparison with the District Courts in Scotland or the English lowest courts which are presided over by lay magistrates.

The sheriff court is the court of first instance for both civil and criminal cases, but the court's sentencing powers are limited so major crimes (rape, murder etc.) and complex or high value civil cases are dealt with in the High Court (for criminal matters) or the Court of Session (for civil matters).

There are six Sheriffdoms in Scotland, each with a Sheriff Principal . Under each sheriffdom are sheriff districts, each with a court presided over by a sheriff.

Sheriffs are usually advocates and increasingly solicitors with many years legal experience. Until recently they were appointed by the Scottish Executive (on the advice of the Lord Advocate). However, the Scotland Act 1998, introduced the European Convention of Human Rights into Scots Law. A subsequent legal challenge to the impartiality of the Sheriffs based on the provisions of the Convention, lead to the setting up of the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland . The Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland now makes recomendations to the First Minister who makes all judicial appointments in Scotland other than in the District Court.

(See: Scots law)

1.3 City of London

In the City of London, the position of sheriff is one of the officers of the Corporation. Two are elected by the liverymen of the City each year to assist the Lord Mayor, attend the Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey, and present petitions to Parliament: usually one is an alderman and the other not. The aldermanic sheriff is then likely to become Lord Mayor in due course.

2 History

Like the word sheriff itself, the office of sheriff has an interesting history. In Anglo-Saxon England, a reeve was an officer who was appointed by the king to be responsible for the public business of the locality. A high-ranking official, the shire-reeve was the representative of the royal authority in a shire or county. The office of sheriff was continued after the Norman conquest, then known as a viscount.

The most famous holder of this office was the folkloric Sheriff of Nottingham, enemy of Robin Hood.

3 Fictional sheriffs

Perhaps the most famous legendary sheriff is the Sheriff of Nottingham of the Robin Hood legends. Many Western movies feature sheriffs of frontier towns who are either corrupt weaklings or glorious heroes who eventually rid their towns of all their mean elements. See Destry Rides Again and Dodge City for two examples of the latter type.

4 See also

High Sheriff
Sharif, an unrelated Arabian office sometimes anglicised as "Sheriff".

5 Other uses

Sheriff also refers to a "crowd control" vehicle of the US military, planned for Iraq deployment in autumn 2005.[1]

Titles Law enforcement *Sheriff

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1 Modern usage

1.1 United States