Different from other countries in the world, United States police is fragmented into deferent groups that work together to reinforce law and order. There are five main government agencies for enforcing the law which includes; local police who take the highest percentage of 53 percent, the sheriff who operate a local level also taking 17 percent of total police. The state police taking third with 8percent of the total police population. Also, there is the special unit police who also take 8 percent of the total population, and lastly the constables and Marshalls who take one percent. These are the fragmented groups of police in the U.S.
Fragmentation of police has advantages but still have its own issues. Some of these issues include lack of coordination between police agencies. Fragmentation makes the police departments to handle information like they are competing with other units. Units do not work together and hence creates a loophole for crimes. They give allowance for criminals to disrespect the boundaries. The other one is the duplication of service which has created issues in all police agencies. However, there are remedies to all these police fragmentation issues.
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Fragmentation problem may not be a serious issue as some argue. There are ways to reconsider fragmentation as defined by Police Service Study (PSS). One of the ways to reconsider is making duplication of service almost nonexistent. Secondly, the government can make informal interagency assistance common. Also, by making of federal states and local task forces as well as considering the use of community policing in smaller departments which may be more effective.
Fragmentation has various alternatives including consolidation which involve consolidating small units into larger ones. Consolidation of police service from several agencies to one is an effort to centralize police service or functions to reduce the effect of duplication. The other alternative is contracting which involves dispatching, crime lab, academy, and handling calls for service. Here, small agencies contract with big ones for specific service.
