Sheriff

Sheriff refers both to a political or legal office held under English common law or American common law, and to the person who holds such office.

Modern Usage

United States

In the United States a sheriff is generally the highest elected law-enforcement officer of a county. The political election of a person to serve as a police leader is a uniquely American tradition. All law-enforcement officers working for the agency headed by a sheriff are called deputy sheriffs (in common usage often shortened to deputy) and are so called because they are deputized by the sheriff to perform the same duties as him or her.

In the US, the relationship between the sheriff and other police departments varies widely from state to state, and indeed in some states from county to county. In some counties, the sheriff can be the most powerful figure, but in other jurisdictions the sheriff may do little more than keep the jail, transport prisoners, and/or provide courthouse security.

Many US cities and some counties have a chief of police who is the actual head of the police department. The chief of police is usually not an elected office.

In many US jurisdictions, the sheriff also has duties with regard to service of process and summonses that are issued by state courts. The sheriff also often conducts auction sales of real property in foreclosure in many jurisdictions, and is often also empowered to conduct seizures of chattel property that is being seized to satisfy a judgment.

The federal analog to the office of sheriff is the United States Marshals Service, an agency of the Department of Justice: there is one U.S. Marshal for each federal judicial district; the Marshal and his or her deputies are responsible for the transport of prisoners and security for the United States District Courts, and also issue and enforce certain civil process.

Scotland

In Scotland a sheriff is a judge in the lower court, called the Sheriff Court. The sheriff is a professional judge in comparison with theEnglish lowest courts which are presided over by lay magistrates.

The sheriff court is the court of first instance for both civil and criminal cases, but the court's criminal powers are limited so major crimes (rape, murder etc.) are referred to the High Court.

There are six Sheriffdoms in Scotland, each with a Sheriff Principal. Under each sheriffdoms are sheriff districts, which contain a court presided over by a sheriff.

(See: Scots law)

History

Like the word sheriff itself, the office of sheriff has an interesting history. In Anglo-Saxon England, a reeve was an officer who was appointed by the king to be responsible for the public business of the locality. A high-ranking official, the shire-reeve was the representative of the royal authority in a shire or county. The office of sheriff was continued after the Norman conquest, then known as a viscount.

The most famous holder of this office was the folkloric Sheriff of Nottingham, enemy of Robin Hood.

Fictional sheriffs

Many Western movies feature sheriffs of frontier towns who are corrupt, weak, or glorious heroes eventually able to rid their town of all its mean elements. See Destry Rides Again and Dodge City for two examples of the latter type.