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Key Topics
Local and State Law Enforcement
The Law enforcement at the State level consists of the State Police, county sheriff and Municipal police departments. State Police includes Regional commanders, highway patrol and state investigative agencies. The Sheriff’s office includes designated agencies for court related, criminal justice, patrol and investigation matters, effectively supervised by the offices of sheriff’s police, deputy sheriff and Sheriff’s deputy in the order of seniority. (L. Edward Wells, 2005) The Municipal Police enforces majority of the law enforcement activities consisting of metropolitan departments having jurisdiction over different communities and municipalities, assisted by the sworn police officers, sergeants etc.
The state police are in-charge of enforcing the state laws apart from routine patrol and traffic regulations. Other duties include investigating major crimes, organized criminal activities as well as running various units for drug trafficking, juvenile law enforcement, crime laboratories etc.
The duties of the office of the Sheriff is threefold-
Maintaining the county jail and receiving of prisoners in various stages of criminal justice process
Providing personnel to serve court bailiffs, transport defendants and prisoners and to act in civil matters such as delivering subpoena and enforcing court ordered lien, eviction notice etc (Samuel Walker, 2013)
The Municipal Police on the other hand is responsible for maintaining proper law and order at grass root level and dealing with crimes and disturbances in the jurisdiction.
Law enforcement by Municipal Police typically helps in resolving various jurisdictional issues. The Sheriff’s office on the other hand exists in the Metropolitan areas whereas; the State Police is operated mainly through the state wide government agencies that are assign duties to them. (hierarchystructure, 2013)
Multnomah County of Oregon State has a total population of 766,135. About 83.6% at White and the rest of the population includes Asian, African American, and Native Americans etc. The principal industries are manufacturing, tourism, transportation, retail trade (Matt Hastie, AICP, Andrew Parish, Zechariah Heck, 2014) etc.
A total of 940 officers serve the Oregon State Police Department. This constitutes 87% of White and 13% of Minority officers. (Minorities in Oregon police departments, 2014, 2016)
The Police have adopted advanced technology towards better administration. Every Police Bureau member is given an email address. Features such as Central Precinct Street Crimes Unit that conducts live enforcement missions, Rapid Response Team to respond to crowd control are unique in the state.
The majority of the law enforcement activity is conducted by Municipal Police. The police conduct a wide range of functions including law enforcement, patrolling-land and river, community policing and civic emergency co-ordination. The County Sheriff operates investigations throughout the county and patrols unincorporated areas of the county. Co-ordination between the corporations, human trafficking, and homicide investigation are some of the functions. (MCSO, 2015)
There are adequate law enforcement provisions in the area covering Multnomah County. Effective methods of patrolling, investigation and proactive community policing, agile workforce, makes it for a model Police organization. On the flip side, here the Police department there is an abysmally low minority representation in the police department in the county. (Brosseau, 2016). With growing diversity that the state of Oregon has witnessed in the past couple of years, this is an issue that has to be addressed effectively.
Brosseau, C. (2016, April 15). Oregon police far less diverse than communities they serve, data show. Retrieved November 5, 2016, from Oregon live.
hierarchystructure. (2013). US Police Hierarchy. Retrieved November 05, 2016, from hierarchystructure.com: http://www.hierarchystructure.com/us-police-hierarchy/
L. Edward Wells, D. N. (2005, August). Policing in the United States: Developing a. Retrieved November 5, 2016, from U.S. Department of Justice.
Matt Hastie, AICP, Andrew Parish, Zechariah Heck. (2014, October 1). Multnomaha County. Retrieved November 5, 2016, from Multco: https://multco.us/file/36649/download
MCSO. (2015). mcso-profiles. Retrieved November 5, 2016, from MCSO: http://www.mcso.us/profiles/#fact
Minorities in Oregon police departments, 2014. (2016). Retrieved November 5, 2016, from Oregon live: rojects.oregonlive.com/police/minority.php
Nice, M. (2004). Changes in the Jail Population. Oregon.
Samuel Walker, U. o. (2013). The Police in America: An Introduction. Nebraska: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.