PD vs. Sheriff job differences

[Catalyst81]

How similar/different is working for a Sheriff's department vs. working for a police department. I realize with the Sheriff's department you're working for the county rather than the city and there is the possibility of working in the courts/jail. I'm interested in law enforcement and I'm trying to get a better handle on what each job is like. From what I can tell, they seem somewhat similar. Also, is it possible to lateral from a Sheriff depart. to a PD department or vice versa? I was going to try and do a ride a long to get more information, but unfortunately in my area I haven't been able to find an agency offering them to the public right now and I don't have any friends/acquaintances in LE.

[9mmepiphany]

Generally the PD works in the city limits while the SO roams the county. Many smaller cities also contract with the SO to provide LE services.

The PD is usually made up of Patrol and Detectives.

The SO is usually Patrol, Detectives, Jails, Courts, and Civil Process. Our local Airport contracts with the SO for LE services. We didn't have to do Traffic, as the local CHP handled that

It sort of depends on how much variety you'd like in your assignments...it changes as your career gets longer

[ak_in_ca]

PD's have a lot less room for movement generally because of their smaller size. Will take longer to get promoted, special teams are limited etc... and you are stuck to whatever city you are working for.

SO's have contract citys, unincorporated areas, jails, courts, air units, and numerous special teams etc... so there is a lot of room to move simply because of the size of the department and routine turn over of employees. The PD's will be more tight knit and less difficult in the way of politics because of the size they are able to implement change easier and have more oversight. SO's will be more like working for big government (In my experience)

SO's you will have less backup and staffing generally than PD's because of county budget compared to City staffing (this is not true so much in contract cities worked by SO's) each has their own benefits and drawbacks. With an SO you will probably end up doing courts or jails for years compared to PDs who dont deal with that. SO's generally make less money but have more room for promotions and teams than a PD. It really all depends on what you want to do in your career. If you want variety go to a large SO or PD if you are content with crappy days and patrol for the first 10 years of your career but making more money go PD.

[Catalyst81]

Thanks, that gives me a better idea of the two. Is it difficult or inadvisable to switch mid career between SO and PD if you wanted a change?

[fullrearview]

Thanks, that gives me a better idea of the two. Is it difficult or inadvisable to switch mid career between SO and PD if you wanted a change?

Typically no.

Some departments/offices require you go through their academy though, regardless of your experience. You will have to do the same POST required process all the way through.

[DEPUTYBILL]

Another area that duties may differ is that many but not all Sheriff departments,are also the Coroner for the county. That means any death not signed off by a doctor can or will be a Coroners case. So you may get more calls that involve a death.

[9mmepiphany]

Some departments/offices require you go through their academy though, regardless of your experience.

That would be enough to stop me...after a few years in LE, it is pretty hard accepting what they expect you to believe while going through the academy...plus the odds of passing a Psych Evaluation goes down

If you're thinking about changing departments, make sure that their retirements are compatible...many aren't. If you are thinking you'd like to move around, you might look into going with a State or Fed agency

[Ron-Solo]

The old saying......"When the people need help, they call the police. When the police need help, they call the SHERIFF"

Sorry, guys.....just couldn't resist.

In all seriousness, the duties are similar as mentioned above. Some Department's take laterals, some don't.

Either way, it's a great adventure.

[Notorious]

Depends a lot on the county you are in and if you are looking at LA County, then the Sheriffs will have courts and custody which the PD doesn't have but LA County has a lot of contract cities where they have general LE services like patrol, detectives, homicide, and traffic duties.

Riverside and San Bernardino are like that as well. Some Sheriffs do less patrol and more courts and custody in other counties. Unincorporated county areas have CHP do surface traffic patrol and sheriffs don't handle anything other than regular calls for service.

CA POST requirements are the same for sheriffs or police so you can lateral from one to the other and many people I know have done from one to the other and vice versa.

It all depends on what you are looking for. Some guys have no wish to do any court or custody time and just want patrol right off the bat and the PD will give you that. Other people don't care or actually want those duties so they go Sheriffs.

Me? I like the navy uniform better than tan/green so I went PD.

[tbhracing]

Tagged

[TASK, LLC]

Lateral movement can be done, as in any law enforcement agency.

If the agency is in California, you should obtain your Basic POST certificate from the agency before you attempt to lateral as that is usually what is required to "lateral" over. If you do not have a Basic POST (there are lots of reasons why you do not have one, not usually good ones), then you will most likely be required to move over as a newly hired recruit.

If you lateral, you may lose all of your retirement benefits unless the agency has an identical plan. You may be required to cash out all of the dollar value.

If you lateral out of the state that you received your certification, you may be able to process to get equivalency in a Basic certificate from the state you are moving into. Sometimes the state may not recognize your out-of-state certification and may require you to go through the entire process.

Both the police and sheriff careers are excellent. You should consider where you intend to live as you can imagine that a Police Department operates in a specific city and you may be able to "move" around the city. A Sheriff Department works the county, and you can "move" around the county to contract cities or other duties.

Good luck to you in the process.

[mixicus]

Generally speaking in SoCal, in a PD you will go to patrol immediately after the academy. In a SD, you will spend some amount of years in custody or courts then go to patrol. Once in patrol both daily job functions are the same.

At this point you need to look at what type/size of PD you want to compare to a SD for opportunities. In OC, the SD is truly a full service entity with respect to career opportunities. You can do almost anything that applies to local LE. OCSD has slots across the county in various detective/investigations, traffic, MART, Aero, full time SWAT, hazardous devices, training, the academy, harbor patrol, K9, multi agency task forces...etc. A small to medium sized PD may not have any of those opportunities or limited number of slots (remember number of slots is relative to deputy/officer slots so it may not be any easier to get a cherry assignment even at an SD). But a larger PD like Anaheim or Santa Ana probably has many of them. Some, especially smaller, PD's use a rotating special assignment program where you are limited to 3-5 years in a given slot then you rotate out. It has good (patrol officers with a depth and breath of knowledge) and bad points (no dedicated 15 year experts). Then there's the environment/culture of each PD or SD. In a 30 or 60 officer PD, you know everybody (and they know you). At a SD or larger PD, you'll know your squad but may not know anyone on the other side of the week and unless you have a buddy that just went inside or you popped a big case and are working with a unit, you probably won't know a detective or motor or X. There are similar differences when you start looking at different sized PD's. For example, Santa Ana PD has a traffic unit that is about the same size or bigger than entire PD's in OC.

As for lateral movement between SD and PD, it depends on the policies of agencies involved. The short answer is 'yes'. There maybe baggage that you don't want associated with the move. In going from a PD to a SD, you may be required to do time in custody. That can be a big negative if you spent the last 5-10 years on the street. Then there's retirement portability and loss of seniority. Around here, it is more common to see movement from OCSD to a PD not the other way around.

Both are great organizations. It just depends on which suits you better and if you look better in green or blue.

[Clutch-n-Throttle]

The old saying......"When the people need help, they call the police. When the police need help, they call the SHERIFF"

And when the Sheriff needs help, they call the CHP

[Notorious]

The old saying......"When the people need help, they call the police. When the police need help, they call the SHERIFF".

Haha, that reminded me of one of my first gigs as a brand new rookie... we had a safety fair in a park or something like that and the LASD SEB came out with all their toys and they laid out their MP5's and other stuff on a table to show people. There were like 2 or 3 of the SEB guys in the green ninja suits and we were providing foot patrol in the fair in our regular navy uniforms.

Of course, being where we are in LA, some scruffy gangbangers started coming to the fair because they hang at the park anyway, so they started hanging out at the SEB tables, looking at their stuff, like... intently studying it... so one SEB guy came over to grab us and asked me and my partner to shoo the gangbangers away because the SEB guys didn't like their hardware to be studied by the gangbangers and they didn't want to be the ones to do the shooing.

So me and my buddy rousted the gangbangers and got them moving away, which made the SEB guys happy. As we walked away, we turned back and told the SEB guys to make sure they call us anytime they needed help.

[fullrearview]

And when the Sheriff needs help, they call the CHP

Someone has to do traffic control!