Chief of police
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Chief of Police is the title typically given to the head of a police department, particularly in North America. Similar alternate titles include Police Commissioner, Police Superintendent. and Chief Constable. In contrast to a Sheriff, who is generally elected by the voters of a county, a chief of police is usually a municipal employee who owes his allegiance to a city. In some states they have both an appointed and an elected Chief of Police (Louisiana). In some jurisdictions the head of the police commission is in fact the leader of the police and holds a position analogous or similar to the one described here, in which case he or she is referred to as Commissioner. The New York City Police Department has both a Police Commissioner and a Chief, formerly called the Chief Inspector but now called the Chief of Department. In Louisiana a Chief of Police may serve as the Chief of Police, Marshal, and Constable for a city.
[edit] United States
Many state constitutions require every county to have a sheriff; some make no provision for this position to be eliminated even in the case of the formation of a consolidated city-county or "metropolitan government". In this case, a decision must be made about how to divide the powers between the county sheriff and the city chief of police. The usual compromise is one which allows the chief of police to exercise law enforcement jurisdiction and to give the sheriff and his or her deputies authority over jails and the serving of civil papers; an alternative and lesser-used solution is to make the office of sheriff a purely ceremonial one. One other solution, an example of which is seen in the case of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, is to provide for the sheriff to simultaneously serve as the chief of police, thus remaining as the chief law enforcement officer of the county.
A police chief may in a small town be the only paid employee of the police department and have a staff consisting only of volunteers, when available; conversely the police chief of a major city may have thousands (or in the case of very large cities such as New York City and Los Angeles, tens of thousands) of sworn officers and thousands more civilian employees under his or her command. So it is very obvious that the qualifications and skills required to be a police chief vary widely. Another important consideration is how overtly a police department is influenced by politics, which varies greatly from one jurisdiction to another. Increasingly, all U.S. law enforcement officers, including small-town police chiefs and their charges, are being required to meet at least minimum levels of professional training to an extent that was unknown even a few decades ago.
[edit] Canada
In the province of Ontario, Canada, a Chief of Police must be a sworn Police Officer and therefore have completed training at the Ontario Police College or have served past a probationary period with another recognized police force. This requirement is legislated in the Police Services Act of Ontario. The legislation states in Section 2 that a Chief of Police is a Police Officer. Section 44.2 of the PSA defines the training requirements. There was a case of the Guelph, Ontario Police Department where a human resources manager was promoted to the position of Deputy Chief, but was required to complete training at the OPC. The candidate is selected by a Police Services Board.
