Talk:Federal law enforcement in the United States/Archive 1

September 2008
is the NSA a LEA? Rds865 (talk) 06:49, 22 September 2008 (UTC)
 * NO not the NSA the NSA Police might be though, NSA has no jusristiction in the United States as it is a intelligence collection agency much like the CIA.--124.180.182.156 (talk) 07:25, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

Section Removed from Lede
This is the section I removed from the lede. It is reproduced here for discussion:

"The federal government is prohibited from exercising general police powers due to restrictions in the constitution, due to the fact that the United States is organized as a union of sovereign states, which each retain their police, military and domestic law-making powers. For example, the State's National Guard is the state's military. The constitution gives the federal government the power to deal with foreign affairs and interstate affairs (affairs between the states). For policing, this means that if a domestic crime such as murder is committed in a state and the fugitive does not flee the state, the federal government has no jurisdiction. However, once the fugitive crosses a state line he violates the federal law of interstate flight and is subject to federal jurisdiction, at which time federal law enforcement agencies may become involved."

There are various problems here besides the fact it is unreferenced.

1.) "The federal government is prohibited from exercising general police powers due to restrictions in the constitution, due to the fact that the United States is organized as a union of sovereign states, which each retain their police, military and domestic law-making powers."

What is being described here is a CONFEDeration. The United States is a FEDeration. The Federal Government of the United States is supreme over state governments. This is established by the supremacy clause of the Constitution of the United States. For example: states can not unilateraly leave the United States.

2.) "For example, the State's National Guard is the state's military."

The State's National Guard is it's military, but it is subject to the authority of the United States. The President can take, (and has taken,) command of the National Guard without consent of the Governor of the state.

3.) "The constitution gives the federal government the power to deal with foreign affairs and interstate affairs (affairs between the states)."

This is true on it's face, but it is not the limit of the powers of the federal government.

4.) "For policing, this means that if a domestic crime such as murder is committed in a state and the fugitive does not flee the state, the federal government has no jurisdiction. However, once the fugitive crosses a state line he violates the federal law of interstate flight and is subject to federal jurisdiction, at which time federal law enforcement agencies may become involved."

This is partially true. Murder is a crime as defined by federal law. The United States Code dealing with murder says "Within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States...." Generally, the goverment does not have original jurisdiction in the above example. This is because the law is specifically written to deny federal jurisdiction for the crime of murder. That does not mean the federal government has "no jurisdiction." For example, Rodney King was assaulted by police officers. The officers were found not guilty of assault in the State of California. The federal goverment does not assert jurisdiction for the crime of assault committed within a state. The same officers were then tried and found guilty in federal court of violating King's civil rights. The Untied States Code dealing with Civil Rights offenses says, "(federal officers) are authorized and required, at the expense of the United States, to institute prosecutions against all persons violating any of the (federal civil right laws), and to cause such persons to be arrested, and imprisoned or bailed, for trial before the court of the United States or the territorial court having cognizance of the offense." This is an example where the federal government has general police powers within the states. Another example is crimes aboard an aircraft. Since aircraft are regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration regardless of whether they cross state lines, crimes committed aboard an aircraft are always under federal jurisdiction. They may also be under the jurisdiction of the state in which the act occured assuming the act was a crime under that state's laws.

These issues need to be discussed and referenced before the text is reinserted into the article. Thanks! Sperril (talk) 18:25, 8 July 2009 (UTC)


 * WOW, are you mostly wrong. IAW the United States Constitution, the removed section is mostly correct.


 * 1.) "The federal government is prohibited from exercising general police powers due to restrictions in the constitution, due to the fact that the United States is organized as a union of sovereign states, which each retain their police, military and domestic law-making powers."


 * IAW Article Four of the United States Constitution, which describes the relationship between the states and the Federal government and amongst the states, —Preceding unsigned comment added by Degen Earthfast (talk • contribs) 17:17, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

Distinctions
Editors that know could we make a way to show which agencies are LEAs and which are just parent agencies/non LEAs e.g italics or maybe [LEA] following since colors will not work due to link coloring — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.100.204.74 (talk) 20:49, 25 May 2011 (UTC)

What laws give authority to a 'Federal Police'
"Federal police possess enforcement authority as given to them under various parts of the United States Code (U.S.C.)." Is it to onerous to cite? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.50.119.13 (talk) 21:55, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

How does this article meet Wikipedia's verifiability requirements?
How does this article meet the Verifiability requirements?... "All material in Wikipedia mainspace, including everything in articles, lists and captions, must be verifiable."... the article needs inline citations... I am tagging the article, please help if you can ... Risk Engineer (talk) 11:22, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Updated Figures
The newest available figures for the amount of federal law enforcement officers I can find are from the BJS Census of Federal Law Enforcement Officers, 2008. 108.6.212.22 (talk) 00:57, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

SEC Police?
Do the Securities and Exchange Commission have a federal Police agency? leopheard (talk) 07:23, 11 May 2016 (UTC)