Law enforcement agency

LEA might be able to apply its powers within a state (e.g. the National Police for the entirety of France), within an administrative division (e.g. the Ontario Provincial Police for Ontario, Canada), within a division of an administrative division (e.g. the Miami-Dade Police Department for Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States), or across a collection of states typically within an international organization or political union (e.g. Europol for the European Union).

In other cases, an LEA's involvement is determined based on whether their involvement is requested; the Australian Federal Police, for instance, has jurisdiction over all of Australia, but usually takes on complex serious matters referred to it by another agency, and the agency[which?]

Only the municipal, county, and state levels are involved in direct policing (i.e. uniformed officers with marked cars and regular patrols), and these can still depend on each agency's role and function.

All three technically have overlapping jurisdictions, and though their regular duties are fairly different and they typically avoid each other's responsible areas (the Cook County Sheriff's Office typically avoids patrolling Chicago unless it is for penal or court-related duties), they are still capable of assisting each other if necessary, usually in the form of higher-tier agencies assisting lower-tier agencies.

Often, a LEA's jurisdiction will be geographically divided into operations areas for administrative and logistical efficiency reasons.

When multiple LEAs cover the one legal jurisdiction, each agency still typically organizes itself into operations areas.

An international law enforcement agency has jurisdiction and or operates in multiple countries and across state borders, such as Interpol.

Federal LEA responsibilities are typically countering fraud against the federation, immigration and border control regarding people and goods, investigating currency counterfeiting, policing of airports and protection of designated national infrastructure, national security, and the protection of the country's head of state and of other designated very important persons, such as the U.S. Secret Service[11] or the U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Security Service.

Such exercising of powers is typically specific arrangements between the federal and divisional governing bodies.

[15] Some countries provide law enforcement on land and in buildings owned or controlled by the federation by using a federal LEA; for example, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security[16] is responsible for some aspects of federal property law enforcement Typically, LEAs working in different jurisdictions which overlap in the type of law non-compliance actively establish mechanisms for cooperation, establish joint operations and joints task forces.

To help avoid confusion over jurisdictional responsibility, some federal LEAs, such as the U.S. FBI, explicitly advise that they are not a national law enforcement agency.

Examples of countries with non-federal national police agencies are New Zealand, Italy, Albania, Indonesia, France, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Nicaragua.

LEAs can be responsible for the enforcement of laws affecting the behavior of people or the general community (e.g. New York City Police Department), the behavior of commercial organizations and corporations (e.g. Australian Securities and Investments Commission), or for the interests of the country as a whole (e.g. United Kingdom's His Majesty's Revenue and Customs).

While this understanding of policing, being more encompassing than just law enforcement has grown with and is commonly understood by society, it is recognized formally by scholars and academics.

Private police are law enforcement bodies that are owned or controlled by non-governmental entities.

For example, the San Francisco Patrol Special Police was formed to increase security in San Francisco during the California gold rush, and presently still exists to protect locations on the request of private clients.

Monitoring of the application of regulations and codes of practice is not normally considered law enforcement.

Also, the failure to apply codes of practice can impact other subjects' safety and life, which can also be illegal.

Religious law enforcement agencies, such as Saudi Arabia's Mutaween or Iran's Guidance Patrol, exist where full separation of government and religious doctrine has not occurred, and are generally considered police agencies, typically religious police, because their primary responsibility is for social order within their jurisdiction and the relevant social order being highly codified as laws.

This arrangement has been achieved by formal agreement between those provinces and municipalities and the federal government, and reduces the number of agencies policing the same geographical area.

For example, to undertake an intrusive search, typically a LEA must make an argument and convince a judicial officer of the need to undertake the intrusive search on the basis that it will help detect or prove non-compliance with a law by a specified subject.

The judicial officer, if they agree, will then issue a legal instrument, typically called a search warrant, to the LEA, which must be presented to the relevant subject if possible.

For example, the Australian Federal Police's controlled operations are subject to open civil review by its governing body, the Parliament of Australia.

For example, many jurisdictions have laws which forbid animals from entering certain areas for health and safety reasons.

Members of LEAs may be permitted to openly display firearms in places where this is typically prohibited to civilians, violate various traffic laws in the course of their duties, or detain persons against their will.