State police

Definition: Law-enforcement organizations that operate directly under the authority of state governments, rather than under municipalities

Significance: State police carry out certain specific functions, principally highway safety and criminal investigations.

The US Constitution assigned to the states the responsibility for maintaining law and order. Until 1900, however, the states entrusted policing mainly to local communities. In case of riots or other serious disorders, governors called out the militia. In Texas, the Rangers, a mounted militia, kept the peace in isolated areas in addition to fighting Native Americans and patrolling the Mexican border. Between 1865 and 1875, Massachusetts experimented with a state constabulary. During the late nineteenth century, public sentiment remained hostile toward the idea of professional state police forces.

Early State Police Forces

During the 1890’s, the United States underwent rapid industrialization and grew more interdependent, its parts connected by a vast network of railroads. Crime became more mobile and complex, challenging the resources of local police. At the dawn of the twentieth century there was a pressing need for more specialized, better-trained police at the state level.

The first state to meet that need was Pennsylvania. Like many other newly industrialized areas of the Northeast and Midwest since the Civil War (1861-1865), Pennsylvania suffered chronically from severe social unrest, especially among workers in its coal mines and factories. A fierce, lengthy strike in the anthracite mines in 1902 aroused public opinion to demand that other, more civilized means be found of calming industrial disputes than the indiscriminate clubbing of mine workers by private police. This outcry set in motion a reform movement led by Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker to create a state police. The governor sent John C. Groome, a former officer in the Philippine Constabulary, to Ireland, where he studied the Royal Irish Constabulary. In 1905 Groome organized the Pennsylvania State Police, recruiting 228 men with military backgrounds, some of whom had also been officers in the Philippine Constabulary. They were given rigorous training and then deployed in four units in western Pennsylvania, where they proved to be impartial and effective at quelling disorder.

Fourteen states established police forces over the next twenty years, the eastern states generally following Pennsylvania’s example. Western states, such as Nevada and Colorado, created forces that were extremely brutal and partial to the interests of wealthy absentee employers, especially in the mining industry. During the 1920’s, modern highways spread out across the United States, creating a new task for state police: traffic control. This required a new approach to policing. Persons wealthy enough to own or drive automobiles were likely to be prosperous merchants and professionals rather than foreign-born coal miners. Police had to be recruited and trained who could deal civilly with middle-class taxpayers, offering traffic safety programs and mildly enforcing traffic regulations.

At the same time, the expense of installing the technology to fight crime led many states to establish bureaus of criminal identification. By 1940 highway patrols or state police were at work in more than 80 percent of the states. They had earned reputations as “elite lawmen.” Since World War II, state police have continued to be concerned mainly with traffic control, while assuming a more significant role in criminal investigation. State police agencies are characterized by their narrow, specific mandates, reflecting public distrust of centralized policing in the European tradition.

Organization of State Police

The term “state police” is broadly understood to refer to the various agencies of law enforcement that function directly under the authority of the governments of the states, in contrast to county and local police agencies and federal police agencies. This broad definition of state police includes highway patrols, state police forces, and a variety of state investigative agencies. In 1993 there were 87,000 state police in the widest sense of the term, which amounted to 9.7 percent of all sworn law-enforcement personnel in the United States. In contrast, there were 110,000 federal, 173,000 county, and 465,000 municipal police. All U.S. states except Hawaii have state policing agencies. Twenty-six states have highway patrols and twenty-three have state police agencies. Thirty-five states have investigative agencies that are separate from highway patrols or state police. There are, in addition, a great number of specialized investigative bodies, such as fire marshals and fish and wildlife agents. All state law-enforcement entities derive their authority to investigate wrongdoing or enforce the law from the state legislatures, from which they receive most of their funds.

State law enforcement is organized differently from state to state. In some states several agencies are centralized in one department. The Iowa Department of Public Safety, which is headed by a commissioner who reports to the governor, oversees the divisions of state patrol, criminal investigation, fire marshal, capitol security, communications, and administrative services. In other states, law-enforcement agencies are organized in various departments. The California Highway Patrol, for example, is organized in the Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency while the state’s investigative agencies are grouped together in the Division of Law Enforcement under a director appointed by the state attorney general. Some state police agencies are controlled by commissions and others by state governors.

State Police Powers

State police in the narrow sense, in contrast to highway patrols, have state-wide powers to arrest persons suspected of both criminal and traffic offenses. Most state police agencies have plainclothes and uniformed agents. They provide the auxiliary services of record-keeping, training, communications, and forensics. Pennsylvania has the largest state police agency and Idaho the smallest.

State highway patrols are usually limited to enforcing traffic regulations, but they are empowered to assist any law-enforcement officer upon request. The investigation of crime is generally left to separate state investigative agencies. California has the largest highway patrol and Wyoming the smallest.

Investigative agencies with statewide authority to arrest have primary jurisdiction in certain crimes. Criminal investigative personnel are plainclothes officers who provide a variety of auxiliary services. They are distinguished from other state investigative agents, such as fish and game inspectors, whose powers are limited to a particular area of enforcement. Florida has the largest state bureau of investigation and North Dakota and South Dakota the smallest.

Role of State Police Broadly Considered

All state law-enforcement agencies require that applicants be US citizens and state residents. Most state police agencies provide a basic course of instruction and training, usually at police academies, and in-service training. The minimum educational requirement is usually a high school diploma or equivalent. The investigative agencies of California and several other states require that applicants must have completed two or more years of college, concentrating on police sciences.

Regardless of how differently state police systems are organized, they share common functions within law enforcement. They investigate certain crimes as prescribed by state law and provide forensic and other technical services to local police. They also provide specialized investigators, such as narcotics squads, to assist investigations by local agencies. State police enforce, with the power of arrest, state traffic laws and laws pertaining to certain criminal offenses. Usually state constitutions assign to county and municipal police the general responsibility for enforcing state laws and keeping the peace. If rural or unincorporated areas are unwilling or unable to perform these functions, they may contract or arrange for service by state police, as is the case in Alaska, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

On rare occasions state governments may call upon their police to temporarily assume law-enforcement duties in municipalities, as in New York City in 1935 and Trenton, New Jersey, in 1983. With a few exceptions, the state police’s authority to carry arms and to arrest is limited to the areas within state borders. States may enter into mutual agreements with one another that allow their respective police to cross borders in pursuit of fugitives.

State police forces provide information to themselves, to local police within their states, and to other state and federal agencies. Every state has access to the National Crime Information Center of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). They all have computer information systems for processing criminal records. The effectiveness of communication is improved by regional cooperation, as in the New England State Police Compact, under which police forces share resources in the investigation of organized crime. In most cases state law-enforcement agencies are responsible for collecting, transmitting, and publishing states’ crime statistics. State law-enforcement agencies also supply forensic services to their own personnel and to other criminal justice agencies. For the most part, the employees of states’ forensic institutions are civilians.

Examples of State Police Forces

Established in May 1905, the Pennsylvania state police was the first state police force in the United States. It is also the largest. Its organization is centralized under a commissioner, who is appointed by the governor and has the rank of colonel. Reporting directly to the commissioner is the Bureau of Professional Responsibility, the Office of General Counsel, the Office of the Budget, and Public Information. A chief of staff responsible for several bureaus of technical and administrative services also reports to the commissioner. A deputy commissioner responsible for a bureau of highway patrol, a bureau of criminal investigation, and five area commands also reports to the commissioner. In addition to the main forensic laboratory in Harrisburg, there are four regional crime laboratories serving local police. The Bureau of Criminal Investigation includes divisions of general investigation, organized crime, fire marshal, and drug-law enforcement.

Recruits to the Pennsylvania state police must be US citizens, state residents, and high school graduates, and they must meet certain physical requirements. Cadets undergo a twenty-week trooper course at the training academy in Hershey followed by field training and periodic in-service instruction.

Founded in 1929, the California Highway Patrol has grown to be the largest agency of its kind in the United States that focuses on traffic control. Situated in the Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency, it is led by a commissioner, who is appointed by the governor. It is one of two primary state law-enforcement agencies, the other being the California Division of Law Enforcement, which is responsible for criminal identification and investigation and forensic and other technical investigative services. The California Highway Patrol requires its recruits to be US citizens, holders of valid California driver’s licenses and high school graduates. Moreover, they must meet certain physical and legal requirements. Recruits undergo a basic training course of twenty-two weeks at the academy in Yolo County.

Bibliography

Bechtel, Kenneth H. State Police in the United States: A Socio-Historical Analysis. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1995.

Fisher, Scott M. Courtesy, Service, Protection: The Iowa State Patrol. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall-Hunt, 1993.

Johnson, David R. American Law Enforcement: A History. St. Louis, Mo.: Forum Press, 1981.

Smith, Bruce. The State Police: Organization and Administration. Montclair, N.J.: Patterson Smith, 1969.

Stark, John. Troopers: Behind the Badge. West Trenton: New Jersey State Police Memorial Association, 1993.

Stephens, Donna M. Soldiers of the Law: Oklahoma Highway Patrolmen During the Early Years, 1937-1964. Philadelphia: Xlibris Corporation, 2003.

Torres, Donald A. Handbook of State Police, Highway Patrols, and Investigative Agencies. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1987.