Small town law enforcement...

It probably would be covered by the Sheriff's department. I live in a small town that is a suburb of San Diego. The San Diego County Sheriff's Department serves our community. We have a good-sized sub-station here that's fully staffed. Why not call your local Sheriff's Department and ask? They usually have public information officers for that purpose.

Carlene
www.themysterystartshere.com

I think it depends on the state. In New Hampshire, in the small towns I've lived in, we have a regular police force. Our current town has a part-time chief who also serves as the road agent, and I think two other officers. Maybe three. But we're about 3,500 people, I think. Often in small towns, the state police will help cover when the regular police are off. I remember a few years back a big stink in the town of Deerfield, the police force was small, the town didn't want more cops, and people were saying that it would take forty-five minutes for the state police to respond. We have a sheriff in town, but only because our town is where the county jail and county sheriff's office happens to be. The sheriff is not involved in town level law enforcement, as far as I know.

The tiny town we lived in out in western Massachusetts had two part time police officers and a resident state trooper. Massachusetts regularly assigns troopers to live in towns with small police forces.

In my area the Sheriff takes care of anything out of city limits and also really small towns where there is no city police.

At least one small town near me has city police , less than 1000 population,- the Chief and I think one other officer, possibly 2. They're covered for 24 hrs. Small towns also sometimes have volunteers who might be on an as needed basis.

It depends on the state. My husband (the state trooper) says that it is true that a sheriff in Texas can deputize someone if necessary. Would never happen in this day and age, but it IS possible.
Also, we lived in a town of 1000+ people at one point and he was the only deputy on duty for his shift. Any backup he needed would come from the other officers that lived and worked in town (they covered a portion of the county, not all of it). There were...three other guys that were deputies up there, but none of them were on shift at the same time.
Hope that helps a little.

I grew up in Stevens County, Kansas, in the 70s. Total population of about 4,000 at the time, split into 2 towns and two villages. We had a County Sheriff, plus two full-time deputies and two part-time deputies. And yes, the sheriff has the power to deputize people. This happened twice that I can remember, as my grandfather was deputized. Once was a horrible ice storm and once was a case of two guys escaping from jail in a neighboring county. The sheriff deputized about ten guys he trusted to go door-to-door during the manhunt.

Well, in the tiny town nearest me (I don't even live in a town. I live in the woods.) The police force consists of two or three people... there's never been more than three. The cops are sustained by government grants, but they are so crooked it's not even funny. They have a quota of traffic tickets they have to make a month in order to get some type of bonus.

It depends on the Sheriff's office jurisdiction, I think. They have substations in various parts of Lee County that are too small or don't have their own police force. My city has its own police station, so Sheriff's deputies don't really have any territory this side of the river.

I moved from rural Montana to rural Oregon. Small-town police in neighboring communities are much the same and are much too much as EFCollins described.

If the small police force isn't crooked, they are at minimum self-serving. They issue lots and lots of traffic citations for the slightest infraction of little-known laws. "Ignorance of the law is no excuse," they cite. But I guess ignorance of the U.S. Constitution is fine and dandy. No use fighting any citation, because the small-town judges are in on the system. They take turns playing musical chairs with the local prosecutor and public defender. They are the same people; they just trade places every so often when the people are fed up enough to vote in a different judge. The only trouble is voters forget the system is inbred so that nothing actually changes.

Yes, the city departments depend a lot on grants, and the larges chunks of money come from national women's groups. It's good to fight partner abuse, but the courts are set up so the guy is always the "offender." They even call him "offender" before any arraignment. No matter who does what, the guy spends the night in jail and pays handsomely for the privilage.

Back home and around here, if you want law enforcement assistance, the county sheriff's office isn't perfect, but it's far more fair and professional than small city police departments.

In my opinion, the county "sworn officers" adhere closer to upholding the main document they swear to: the Constitution of the United States of America.

We have about 3-4 officers out here, including the Sheriff. The Sheriff came in person when my house was baing broken into wiith me there, for instance. A lot of things they are called for includes the volunteer fire dept and EMTs [volunteer?], also small local groups.

They are exceedingly nice. Unfortunately, they really are slower than in the city. My dog took care of the breakin long before the Sheriff got there

I'm so close to two cities that backup would surely be called from them if anything big enough happened.

Same in rural NY. The sheriff has jurisdiction. Some villages feel they need faster response time and more visible patrol, so they form their own police department. It could consist of one to several members, depending on the budget.
Some communities hire private security companies to patrol just their community boundaries. They have no police powers, but work closely with the police/sheriffs, etc. You usually see these in gated communities.

In the town where I grew up, there were around 300 people. We had a Police Chief and a couple of deputies. The town was actually incorporated as a city in the state where I live. If it were in unincorporated county, the county sheriff would deal with any police matters. The police in our small town were paid a salary that came from the homeowners' taxes, I believe.