system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: police, sheriffs, state troopers, highway patrol. What’s the difference and why aren’t they the same organisation?
gpt
This is a result of how the matter of policing the laws is done in the US and may not make sense for the rest of the world. When the US were founded there were fully functional governments in the colonies. They had their own laws, their own police forces and even their own armies. The US started as an alliance rather then as a nation. And the states are still very independent with their own police forces to this day. Although there is a few federal police forces like the FBI and Secret Service tasked with enforcing specific part of federal law. But most states had similar issues as the entire country. There were a huge distance between towns and the communications infrastructure were not established. So towns had their own laws and their own police. Usually in the form of a town sheriff. Bigger cities had a more traditional police force. But there were still state troopers that handled crimes across county lines and in remote areas. With the introduction of highways some sheriff deputies, police officers and state troopers have been tasked with patrolling these highways. However it is mostly state troopers doing these patrols as the highways stretch across many countries.