Talk:Law enforcement agency

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This page should be merged with / redirected to Law enforcement and/or List of law enforcement agencies. I can't see the point of this article. --Kevin23

There is no Law enforcement article; it's a redirect to police. I only noticed this article now, but after working on law enforcement articles for a while, this could be quite useful. "Police" is a pretty broad topic, and that article should reflect that, but there's a lot of material on law enforcement agencies specifically currently crowding that article that would make more sense here. If the police article ever gets done up to be adequately comprehensive, it would be huge unless it's subdivided. Just noticing from editors contributions as well, it seems to divide along these lines, i.e., some people are interested in police operations and organization (which could be covered here), while others are more interested in police issues. That said, I can't imagine that work will get done any time soon, at least til I get around to it (which might take some time), so for now, I'm indifferent to a merge, and see this merely as a placeholder for a future article. Bobanny 06:56, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bias - US outlook only - a rewrite ?

It is probably unintentional, but the phrasing of some of the content is rather baised. For example, the statement, 'Even so, non-police law enforcement agencies exist outside of the US . . .', is not exactly Wiki or encylopaedic.

I suggest that the article be rewritten something like as follows:

A law enforcement agency (LEA) is a term used to describe an organisation that enforces the laws of one or more governing bodies, or actively and directly assists in the enforcement of law. In doing so, the LEA assists the governing bodies to govern their subjects. LEAs will have some form of geographic restriction on their ability to apply their powers. The LEA might be able to apply its powers within a country, for example the United States of America's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, within a division of a country, for example the Australian state Queensland Police, or across a collection of countries, for example Interpol or the European Union's Europol.

Many law enforcement agencies are Police agencies that have a broad range powers and responsibilities. Police agencies, however, also often have a range of responsibilities not related to law enforcement. These responsibilities relate to social order and public safety.

LEAs can be responsible for enforcing secular law and-or religious law, for example Sharia or Halakha.

LEAs can be responsible for the enforcement of laws affecting the behaviour of people, for example New York City Police Department, organisations and corporations, for example the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, and even the governing bodies they support.

LEAs which have their ability to apply their powers restricted in some way are said to have a defined jurisdiction. A LEA which has a wide range of powers but whose ability is restricted geographically, typically to an area which is only part of a country, are referred to as local police or territorial police.

The term 'law enforcement agency' is often used in the United States of America to refer to police agencies, but in most other countries the term when used formally includes many agencies other than only police agencies. 152.91.9.190 (talk) 06:09, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

A rewrite done - hopefully it helpsPee Tern (talk) 05:22, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Rewrite in progress

I am doing a major rewrite and restructure of this article. For the time being, if you have any suggestions or corrections to make, please post them here so that I can properly include them as I go. Pee Tern (talk) 21:27, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I haven't read the article, but a couple of comments on the headings:

• The tiny ones (level 6?) where the text is smaller than the body text do not look like headings at all.

Yep I know. I asked about this on the Wikipedia:Help desk#Why are level 5 section headings minute? Nothing really helpful yet has been provided . . . ? Pee Tern (talk) 22:57, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

• Wikipedia standard is to not user Upper Case on Words in Headings, i.e., do not use upper case on words in hadings. Exceptions for place names, proper names, etc. —Preceding unsigned comment added by RenniePet (talk • contribs) 18:34, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Fixed. Thanks for the tip. Pee Tern (talk) 22:57, 14 February 2008 (UTC)