Tag: jurisdiction

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More Street Stories Writer's Notes

Who’s Responsible for What?

For writers, I have italicized common phrases used in cop culture conversation. Cops are like anyone else: they have their own vocabulary and lingo. Sprinkled throughout your manuscript, these carry the ring of authenticity. Also, for a not-quite complete but almost, list of California Law Enforcement Agencies search Wikipedia under that title. I only noted one agency missing-Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety!

Multi-jurisdictional Incidents

San Antonio Police set perimeter, keeping civilians away from potential danger

It should be noted in this post that overall responsibilities across jurisdictions (not within city limits) belongs to either the CHP or the local sheriff–depending on the event. The Highway Patrol takes the lead in incident related to traffic or hazardous materials on all state highways and unincorporated areas. They are often assisted by the California Highway Department, Department of Fish and Game, possibly a contract clean-up company and/or local fire district engines and personnel. Examples would be a pursuit on the highway (again, not within city limits), a natural disaster or a hazardous materials spill. As I said in previous blogs, city police handle municipalities and sheriff’s department handles crimes in all unincorporated areas. The exception is road rage incidents on highways (even within city limits).

Taking the Lead

Let’s say a bad guy decides to rob a convenience store in the city of San Rafael then crosses city limits to San Anselmo to hole up with a hostage. There could be a jurisdictional issue. The agency in which the event is currently occurring (hostage situation-San Anselmo) would probably take the lead on this call. However, there are variations because no two events are ever the same. What is to be determined is called primary investigatory authority. What if the bad guy robbed a bank–then the FBI would take the lead. Local police departments (PDs) would secure the scene. That starts with establishing a perimeter. No one wants soccer mom walking into a shoot-out so staffed barricades would be set up far enough away to keep the public safe. (Obviously, if needed evacuations would be done inside the perimeter as safety permits–sometimes it is safer to stay where one is.) But we will discuss the FBI in a later blog.

Washington State hostage negotiator

Back to our scenario: agency heads can hash out the “lead agency” and act accordingly. Why would San Rafael want the bad guy? What if he killed the convenience store clerk? Murder trumps everything–it is considered a capital crime and may be eligible for the death penalty. Clearly, the District Attorney would pursue a murder charge over false imprisonment (that is assuming the bad guy gives up without hurting his hostage.).  Even so, all violations are charged by the agencies involved. The DA will sift through the reports, talk to witnesses and decide which are the most prosecutable (read: bad guy has a good chance of being convicted) crimes.

Another variation: San Anselmo is a small department–less than 20 sworn officers; San Rafael PD is much larger–with 65 sworn–and more resources. It is feasible that a chief may hand over control to another solely because the event outstrips the logistical ability of their department.

Once the lead agency is assigned, it is rarely changed. I have never seen that at a primary event. However, should an officer shoot or get shot, the game changes. The lead agency remains the same but only investigates the instigating occurrence. Third party detectives would be brought in to an officer involved shooting (OIC) to insure investigative impartiality.

Mutual Aid

If needed, the Incident Command System(ICS) under the Unified Command System will be instigated and will request mutual aid. This is just what it sounds like: asking for help (usually staffing but can also be specific equipment or team such as SWAT, Bomb Squad or K-9). Most counties have pre-planned mutual aid agreements so there are no surprises. ICS streamlines communications during a major event. The Incident Commander relays needs to department liaisons to move resources. Top tier personnel make sure details are handled.

SWAT K-9

Once again, I’ve used up my word allotment on information I had not quite planned to write about. It seems that these things need to be said. Although there isn’t great detail,  just about every scenario has “qualifications”.  This bears repeating: no two incidents are ever the same, ever.

There isn’t a cop, commander or dispatcher out there who doesn’t think what is the worst thing that can happen…then plans for it.

But that is real life.

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More Street Stories Writer's Notes

Jurisdiction and Jobs

Jurisdictions and Jobs

Police car light bar code 3
police car

I was in a critique group years ago with a writer who had San Francisco PD (SFPD) detectives investigating homicides, a rape and several assaults that occurred in Marin County. The manuscript was completed and the author was using our group to improve the editing. As gently as I could, I explained jurisdiction: SFPD wouldn’t routinely respond to a crime that occurred in another county. There are times when it could happen: mutual aid request from Marin County Sheriff (who handles that jurisdiction) or the crimes are related to an SFPD case. But, normally this is a mistake that could cost the author his readership–at least, readers who know about the cop life. Believe me, there are a lot of us!

It was unfortunate that he chose to dump an otherwise very entertaining story. But, to varying degrees, I see the same type of mistake in almost every book I read, certainly every cop show on TV and most movies. As much as I love Donny Wahlberg and Tom Selleck, I had to turn off Blue Bloods for this reason. When I see cop characters interfering where they would never go, saying things that are inconsistent with the cop culture or other inaccuracy, it is so distracting that I lose track of what is going on.

Okay, how does jurisdiction work?

With this in mind, I thought I’d spend some time explaining the roles of each type of law enforcement officer and their jurisdictions and responsibilities.

We will start small with the city police. It is the basic unit of the law enforcement fabric. Take a city–Petaluma, California, for instance. The 2010 census tallied the population at 57,941 for an area of nearly 14 square miles. The police department is structured like this (source Petaluma Police Department website): 94 full-time employees, including the Chief, two Captains, three Lieutenants, ten Sergeants, fifty-two Officers, twelve Dispatchers, four Community Service Officers, two Parking Enforcement Officers, and other support staff. Additionally, the Department has D.A.R.E. Officers, two School Resource Officers (SROs), an Explorer’s Program, a Traffic Unit with a Serious Traffic Offender Program (S.T.O.P.), a K-9 Unit, Bicycle and Motorcycle Patrol, Dual Purpose Motorcycle Unit, a SWAT Team, a Hostage Negotiation Team, Patrol Gang Enforcement, an Investigation Unit, and a volunteer Reserve Community Service Officer Program.

Petaluma Police Department patrol car

This sounds like a lot of people but in reality many of the jobs in the fifth paragraph are staffed by people in the fourth paragraph. While SROs are normally dedicated to assigned schools, they can also be members of the SWAT team and be “called out” for an emergency. The same goes for Hostage Negotiators. Commonly, they are detectives or patrol officers with special schooling. In larger cities, these positions are more likely to be staffed full-time. In some large agencies, top-tier police association (or union) presidents or representatives are dedicated to the position.

What do they do?

The scope of responsibility for city police is to respond to emergencies, record crimes reports and suppress crime. They also serve criminal (not civil) warrants, write tickets, assist in medical and rescue calls.

As a writer, generally you will have a location in mind, fictional or not. Feel free to call a similar jurisdiction nearby to see how it is structured. Most cops are helpful with this kind of information especially when listen to their answers. Cops appreciate that.

Next week

Next week, we will talk about public safety departments, sheriff’s jurisdiction, marshal’s office, state cops, California Highway Patrol and finally the Feds.

Feel free to add anything you might note is different in your locale. Most law enforcement agencies are standardized throughout California.