State police are a type of sub-national territorial police force, particularly in Australia and the United States. Some other countries have analogous police forces, such as the provincial police in some Canadian provinces, while in other places, the same responsibilities are held by national police forces. The main focus of many State Troopers in the United States is highway safety .
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Each state of Australia has its own state police force. Municipalities do not have police forces and it is left to the state forces to police the geographic areas within their respective states. Australia does have a national police force, the Australian Federal Police, whose role is to enforce the laws of the Commonwealth, both criminal law and civil law, as well as to protect the interests of the Commonwealth, both domestically and internationally. The AFP does, however, provide 'state' policing for the Australian Capital Territory, Jervis Bay Territory, and Australia's other external territories such as Norfolk Island. Prior to the Federation of Australia, each Colony within Australia had numerous police forces, but these were largely amalgamated well before Federation.
Each state in Brazil has two state police forces;
Two provinces in Canada have a police force with jurisdiction over the entire province. In all other provinces, provincial police services are carried out by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
There is also a third police force in Newfoundland known as the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, which serves several metropolitan areas. Although this police force no longer exists as the main provincial police service, it is in competition with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for the role.
The Landespolizei (or LaPo) is a term used in the Federal Republic of Germany to denote the law enforcement services that perform law enforcement duties in the States of Germany. The German constitution delegates the majority of law enforcement responsibilities to the 16 states of the country.
Each state and territory has a state police force and its own distinct State Police Service, headed by the Commissioner of Police (State) or Director General of Police (DGP) who is an Indian Police Service officer. The IPS is not a law enforcement agency in its own right; rather it is the body to which all senior police officers of all states belong regardless of the agency for whom they work. The state police is responsible for maintaining law and order in townships of the state and the rural areas.
In addition to the state police, major cities have their own police force called Metropolitan Police which is quite similar to other normal police forces except their different rank designations; e.g., DGP is called as Commissioner of Police (State) in a state with Metropolitan Police.
The Italian State Police, the Polizia di Stato, is one of three national police forces in Italy. They are the civilian force and perform general police duties alongside the Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza, which are both military.
Each Prefecture of Japan maintains its own police force while the National Police Agency (Japan) serves to coordinate them. Each prefectural police headquarters contains administrative divisions corresponding to those of the bureaus of the National Police Agency. Headquarters are staffed by specialists in basic police functions and administration and are commanded by an officer appointed by the local office of the National Public Safety Commission. Most arrests and investigations are performed by prefectural police officials (and, in large jurisdictions, by police assigned to substations), who are assigned to one or more central locations within the prefecture. Experienced officers are organized into functional bureaus and handle all but the most ordinary problems in their fields.
Three communities/nationalities in the Kingdom of Spain possess their own police force akin to "State Police" or "Community Police".
In the United States, state police are a police body unique to each U.S. state, having statewide authority to conduct law enforcement activities and criminal investigations. In general, they perform functions outside the jurisdiction of the county sheriff (Vermont being a notable exception), such as enforcing traffic laws on state highways and interstate expressways, overseeing the security of the state capitol complex, protecting the governor, training new officers for local police forces too small to operate an academy, providing technological and scientific support services, and helping to coordinate multi-jurisdictional task force activity in serious or complicated cases in those states that grant full police powers statewide. A general trend has been to bring all of these agencies under a state Department of Public Safety. Additionally, they may serve under different state departments such as the Highway Patrol under the state Department of Transportation and the Marine patrol under the Department of Natural Resources. Twenty-three U.S. states use the term "State Police."
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