State police

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Queensland Police Service officers patrolling in Brisbane

SEK members of the State Police of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany during an exercise

State police, provincial police, or regional police are a type of sub-national territorial police force found in nations organized as federations, typically in North America, South Asia, and Oceania. These forces typically have jurisdiction over the relevant sub-national jurisdiction, and may cooperate in law enforcement activities with municipal or national police where either exist.

Argentina[]

In Argentina, as a federal country, each province has its own independent police force and its responsible of its funding, training and equipment. State police agencies are responsible of all the territory of a determinate state. There is almost no municipal/local law enforcement in Argentina, and if there is, they are generally limited to traffic duties.

Australia[]

Each state of Australia has its own state police force. Municipalities do not have police forces and it is left to the state forces to police all geographic areas within their respective states. Australia does have a national police force, the Australian Federal Police, whose role is to enforce the laws of the Commonwealth, both criminal law and civil law, as well as to protect the interests of the Commonwealth, both domestically and internationally. The AFP does, however, provide 'state' policing for the Australian Capital Territory, Jervis Bay Territory, and Australia's other external territories such as Norfolk Island, Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.^[1] Prior to the Federation of Australia, each Colony within Australia had numerous police forces, but these were largely amalgamated well before Federation.

• New South Wales Police Force
• Northern Territory Police
• Queensland Police Service
• South Australia Police
• Tasmania Police
• Victoria Police
• Western Australia Police

Brazil[]

Each state in Brazil has two state police forces:

Civil Police — the State criminal investigative police.

Military Police — they are uniformed gendarmerie forces fulfilling roles as State police. They are a reserve branch of the Brazilian armed forces^[2] but do not perform regular Military Police duties as they are performed by service police such as the Army Police, etc.

Canada[]

Sûreté du Québec cruiser

Law enforcement in Canada operates at the federal, provincial, and local levels. Three provinces of Canada have a dedicated police force, with jurisdiction over some or all of the province:

• Ontario Provincial Police (Ontario)
• Royal Newfoundland Constabulary (Newfoundland and Labrador: St. John's Metropolitan Area, Corner Brook, and Labrador West only)
• Sûreté du Québec (Quebec)

The federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) provides provincial-level policing in the remaining land area of Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as the remaining seven provinces and three territories. The RCMP began being contracted to provide provincial policing in the late 1920s as provincial police forces were disbanded and their duties contracted out to provincial divisions of the RCMP. The last provincial police force to be disbanded, the British Columbia Provincial Police, existed from the mid-19th century until its jurisdiction was transferred to RCMP "E" Division on August 15, 1950.

Provinces which have disbanded their provincial police may retain other provincial law enforcement agencies, such as sheriff services or conservation officers. For example, the Alberta Sheriffs Branch is responsible for traffic enforcement in Alberta together with the RCMP, despite not being a true police force.

Germany[]

Hamburg Police motorcycle officer

The Landespolizei (or LaPo) is a term used in the Federal Republic of Germany to denote the law enforcement services that perform law enforcement duties in the States of Germany. The German federal constitution leaves the majority of law enforcement responsibilities to the 16 states of the country.

There also are several auxiliary state police forces.

• Baden-Württemberg Voluntary Police Service
• Bavarian Security Watch
• Brandenburg Security Partner
• Hesse Voluntary Police Service
• Saxony Security Watch

India[]

The 'Jaguar' Team of the Delhi Police

Each state and union territory has a state police force and its own distinct State Police Services, headed by the Commissioner of Police (State) or Director General of Police (DGP) who is an Indian Police Service officer. The IPS is not a law enforcement agency in its own right; rather it is the body to which all senior police officers of all states belong regardless of the agency for whom they work. The state police is responsible for maintaining law and order in townships of the state and the rural areas.

List of Indian Police Forces

SrNo	State/Union Territory	Police Emblem	Police Force
1	Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Union Territory)		Andaman Nicobar Islands Police
2	Andhra Pradesh		Andhra Pradesh Police
3	Arunachal Pradesh		Arunachal Pradesh Police
4	Assam		Assam Police
5	Bihar		Bihar Police
6	Chandigarh (Union Territory)		Chandigarh Police
7	Chhattisgarh		Chhattisgarh Police
8	Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu		Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu Police
9	Delhi		Delhi Police
10	Goa		Goa Police
11	Gujarat		Gujarat Police
12	Haryana		Haryana Police
13	Himachal Pradesh		Himachal Pradesh Police
14	Jammu and Kashmir (Union Territory)		Jammu and Kashmir Police
15	Jharkhand		Jharkhand Police
16	Karnataka		Karnataka Police
17	Kerala		Kerala Police
18	Ladakh (Union Territory)		Ladakh Police
19	Lakshadweep (Union Territory)		Lakshadweep Police
20	Madhya Pradesh		Madhya Pradesh Police
21	Maharashtra		Maharashtra Police
22	Manipur		Manipur Police
23	Meghalaya		Meghalaya Police
24	Mizoram		Mizoram Police
25	Nagaland		Nagaland Police
26	Odisha		Odisha Police
27	Puducherry		Puducherry Police
28	Punjab		Punjab Police
29	Rajasthan		Rajasthan Police
30	Sikkim		Sikkim Police
31	Tamil Nadu		Tamil Nadu Police
32	Telangana		Telangana Police
33	Tripura		Tripura Police
34	Uttar Pradesh		Uttar Pradesh Police
35	Uttarakhand		Uttarakhand Police
36	West Bengal		West Bengal Police

Indonesia[]

Each of the provinces of Indonesia have their own "Regional Police" (Indonesian: Kepolisian Daerah), which is under the surveillance of the central National Police. Until 1984, the Regional Polices were called in military-style "Police Regional Command" (Indonesian: Komando Daerah Kepolisian). Each regional police is responsible for law enforcement in the said province and is commanded by a brigadier (1-star) or inspector general (2-star).

Mexico[]

Dodge Charger of the Yucatán State Police

Each of the 31 states of Mexico maintains a separate law enforcement agency or Policía Estatal. Each of these state forces is tasked with the protection of their citizens, keeping local order and combating insecurity and drug trafficking. Certain states including Veracruz and Nuevo León have a new model of police force designated as Civilian Forces (Fuerza Civil).

Spain[]

In Spain there are autonomous police forces in four autonomous communities (Ertzainas in the Basque Country, Mossos d'Esquadra in Catalonia, Policía Foral in Navarre and Policía Canaria in the Canary Islands).

United States[]

North Carolina State Highway Patrol cruiser on I-85 in 2008

In the United States, state police (also termed highway patrol, state patrol, or state highway patrol) are a police body unique to 49 of the U.S. states, having statewide authority to conduct law enforcement activities and criminal investigations. Hawaii, despite a widely dispersed archipelago and having four separate county-based police agencies, still has its own statewide police agency.

In general, these police agencies perform functions outside the jurisdiction of the county sheriff, such as enforcing traffic laws on state highways and interstate expressways, overseeing the security of the state capitol complex, protecting the governor, training new officers for local police forces too small to operate an academy, providing technological and scientific services, supporting local police and helping to coordinate multi-jurisdictional task force activity in serious or complicated cases in those states that grant full police powers statewide. A general trend has been to bring all of these agencies under a state Department of Public Safety. Additionally, they may serve under different state departments such as the highway patrol under the state Department of Transportation and the marine patrol under the state Department of Natural Resources.

Twenty-two U.S. states use the term "State Police", fifteen use the term "Highway Patrol", seven use the term "State Patrol", and three use the term "State Highway Patrol", while Alaska's agency is the "Division of Alaska State Troopers". The term "highway patrol" tends to be more common in the southeast and mountain west states.

In addition, all the territories of the United States have a police force with similar territory-wide authority:

See also[]

• Highway patrol
• Traffic police

References[]

External links[]

• PoliceLink.com
• State Trooper Directory
• State Law Enforcement Directory