When I started traveling internationally more, I realized that we have a lot of law enforcement agencies in the US. Just in my area there’s the Texas DPS troopers, local city police, county sheriff, Constables, Dallas public transit police, Fish & Game wardens, and Water District Police. Each university has their own police force as well as the international airport police. Most of the large hospitals have their own police department. There’s even a town that’s about 1sq mi in area and has its own police force.
When I travel to a place like Paris, the only law enforcement I ever see are just Police Nationale.
14 comments
Different jurisdictions, different responsibilities.
Plus since we don’t have a federalized police force, that leaves policing up to the individual locales
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_enforcement_in_France
The US is very big into decentralized government. Power is broken up and distributed. There are checks and balances, in theory, where different entities oversee the actions of the others.
I wouldn’t personally wouldn’t want it any other way.
I would never ever want a Federal police force.
Because we have a highly distributed system of power here – the same reason we have so many school districts. France has a highly centralized law enforcement structure.
But also, Paris will have some different law enforcement agencies including the Police Nationale, the Gendarmerie, La PP, and SNCF (train cops) – you just likely haven’t noticed them. Plus, they’re a little busy rn
Because of federalism.
It’s sort of like asking why there are so many schools or types of teachers or so many different stores.
Having police specialize in one thing means they are more effective and knowledgeable.
Imagine a cop having to know different species of wildlife and also all the driving laws and well ALL the laws!!
Even lawyers have to look up the law – cops specialize so they are better equipped for the job.
Why have a teacher that teaches every subject when you can have one who focuses on only one?
Each of these has their own specific function and jurisdiction. Half of the things you listed probably employ like 5 people
Most countries Government power starts at the top and is distributed down to more localized entities. In the US it is the opposite. Power starts at the local level and a portion of it is given up to each higher level of government.
Part of how this plays out is that each level of government has its own police to enforce the laws that it crafts. It is also part of the philosophy of holding government accountable, which is easier at the local level.
>When I travel to a place like Paris, the only law enforcement I ever see
Yes *you see them*, and you were meant to. You did not see the DPSP officers in Paris as you would have in Nogent-sur-Marne, nor did you see the Gendarmerie Nationale as you-as a tourist are not the major concern or focus.
​
>the Texas DPS troopers, local city police, county sheriff, Constables, Dallas public transit police, Fish & Game wardens, and Water District Police.
I’m willing to bet you don’t see DPS Troopers patrolling your neighborhood but rather on the 680K miles of Texas roads. Fish & Game Wardens aren’t serving evictions in Lower Greenville. Each of these agencies have a jurisdiction( sometimes overlapping) and focus. and as we move to smaller jurisdictions, we also have differing laws. An example in my area: fireworks are banned in one county, yet in an adjacent county legal for the county but banned by certain cities. It absolutely makes sense that an agency in the locality would enforce local laws that may not apply elsewhere. It also makes sense to create an agency focused on specific areas of the law. F&G Wardens don’t spend time investigating a break ins, campus Police are spending little time on Statewide gangs, and the Transit Police have nothing to do with overweight tractor trailers.
Specialization of jurisdiction and laws to enforce is a good thing. Your general practitioner can probably treat your kid, but I bet you’d want a Pediatric Oncologist if that treatment was for cancer…
As an aside, your premise is flawed in three distinct ways: 1) We do have National Law Enforcement [Agencies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_law_enforcement_in_the_United_States#List_of_federal_law_enforcement_agencies_and_units_of_agencies). A *lot* of them! 2) In Paris, I’m almost certain you saw several agencies: Police aux Frontieres at the airport, Police Nationale and Gendarmerie Nationale throughout Paris, as well as security agencies acting as “police” the same way hospitals have “Special Police”. Because you don’t see or recognize them doesn’t mean they don’t exist. 3) Finally, you, in this question, are comparing a city (40 m^(2) , pop 2.1mil) to Texas (268k m^(2) , pop 29.1mil). No part of this comparison creates a reasonable or fair discussion.
Because governments and their agencies are intended to be localized in the US.
I like the fact that policing is divided by jurisdiction.
I just want to say I am impressed your water districts have their own policing!
Water districts, fire districts, etc. are very weird governmental bodies here in New England but a lot of them are quite ancient. Some even predate the states they are in.
Different jurisdictions, mostly.
Some people in this sub are being weirdly hostile to the OP, and I’m not sure why. There are an estimated 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the U.S. I’m not sure why people are pretending that France has an equal amount (or more!) of law enforcement agencies as Texas.
As for the why, it just comes down to history. France has been a much more unitary, centralized state than the U.S., which is much more decentralized (we didn’t start as one colony, but as 13 of them, and then deliberately created a limited central government).