Law Enforcement Agencies

While I think each law enforcement agency is important to its specific duties, I believe the three most important Law Enforcement Agencies are State Police, the U.S. Border Patrol and The Federal Bureau of Investigation. State police are important as their jurisdiction runs throughout a state rather than just a city or county as local police do. This allows them to enforce the law through different cities and counties and allows them to pursue criminals who may be crossing borders. They also keep in contact which other state police to catch fugitives crossing through state borders. State police are visible on all major highways in the U.S.

The U.S. Border Patrol is in charge of policing the borders between Mexico and Canada. They capture over 1 million people yearly who are trying to enter the United States illegally. This is important because a crime committed by an illegal immigrant may be harder to solve since there is little to no record of that person in the United States. The U.S. Border Patrol has also seized large amounts of cocaine and marijuana worth more than 1.4 billion dollars. Seizing illegal narcotics before they enter the country prevents those drugs from hitting the streets where more crime in different areas of the U.S. could amount.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation oversees almost two hundred federal crimes. The FBI not only oversees crimes committed in the United States but also those committed internationally. The FBI pursues criminals who commit sabotage, espionage, kidnapping, extortion, interstate gambling and civil rights violations. Their five investigative priorities include terrorism, organized crime, foreign intelligence operations of the United States , federal drug offenses and white collar crime. The FBI is important because it focuses on large and the most serious crimes. As the police of the country the FBI handles a large amount of international crime and crime which effects more then state or local police agencies can...