I need some assistance with these assignment. law enforcement and policing the courts in the u.s county Thank you in advance for the help! The sheriff is the head of the department-wide authority. Different ranks have the scope of authority in a given county for analysis purpose we shall take an example of Montgomery County in Tennessee. Here we find that the sheriff is the department-wide authority with an insignia having five gold stars arranged in a pentagon, second in command is the chief deputy sheriff with a badge having four gold stars arranged in a line the chief deputy sheriff is responsible with department-wide jurisdiction with the authority to act in the stead of the sheriff. The captain is third in command where he acts as a division commander his badge is a double gold bar. The lieutenant is forth in command who is the section commander and carries an insignia with a single gold bar (Inwald, 1988).

The sergeant is the fifth in command who his responsibility is the unit or the shift commander for identification he has 3 chevrons. Next to him, the investigator is basically called school resource officer, their responsibilities are to provide direction for deputies at crime scenes there is no way of identifying them since they do not wear any insignia. The corporal is responsible for field training officer for patrol shift supervisor or detection division, the corporal wears 2 chevrons with FTO notation for patrol. lastly in the basic organizational structure is the deputy sheriff who is the only one whose badge is silver as opposed to others who have a gold badge in color, he has no insignia (Inwald, 1991).

The sheriff has is important in every county due to the functions that he is responsible for within the county, the sheriff is the chief law enforcement officer who is charged with the responsibility of policing the county and keeping the peace, he has the power to make arrests and administration of jail and custody of the inmates.