The Legal Power of the Sheriff
Today, especially in the northeast portion of the United States, there is some controversy over the legal power and authority of the modern day sheriffs. A March-April 2000 issue of Sheriff magazine addressed this issue head-on and appears to be the most recent clarification of the sheriff authority. Even though the title has been altered at times within the last 1200 years, the legal authority has remained almost fully resistant to change.
Looking at a six (6) year old Pennsylvania Supreme Court case, the court held that the “constitutionally designated sheriff in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a law enforcement officer who is vested with full powers and duties to stop motor vehicles, issue citations for motor vehicle violations under statutory code, and make arrests with or without warrants”(Commonwealth of Pennsylvania vs. Leet, 585 A.2d 1033. Sheriffs and their deputies are basically police officers. Judge Carillo, who presided over this case, even went as far as writing how instinctively,…, we are reminded of Sherwood Forest, where the Sheriff of Nottingham was the chief law enforcement officer who possessed far-reaching powers” and “King Henry of England states to the Sheriff of Nottingham,…But look well to it, Master Sheriff, for I will have my laws obeyed by all men within my kingdom, and if thou art not able to enforce them, thou art no sheriff for me.”
For many years it has been known that modern sheriffs are vested with the powers and duties possessed by their predecessors under common law. In 1941, a landmark graduate student dissertation was written by an A. Anderson and stated “While the legislature may impose additional duties upon the sheriff, where he is recognized as a constitutional officer, it cannot restrict or reduce his powers as allowed by the Constitution, or where they were recognized when the constitution was adopted.” Anderson continued on to say, “The legislature may vary the duties of a constitutional
office, but it may not change the duties so as to destroy the power to perform the duties of the office.”
Anderson found that it was legally acceptable for state legislatures to impose upon sheriffs new duties growing out of public policy or convenience. However, the state legislatures still can not strip the sheriffs of their “time honored and common law functions”. The legislatures cannot “devolve them upon the incumbents of other offices created by legislative authority.”From this, today’s sheriffs have both expressed constitutional and statutory grants of authority. They also have implied authority based on their predecessors actions and can utilize it when it will aid their expressed authority.
The modern sheriff’s provinces and scope of authority can be determined by studying the modern day legislation. The sheriff has the right and duty to enforce any of this legislation as it concerns securing the peace, order, safety, and comfort of the community under his jurisdiction. In enforcing such legislation, the sheriff satisfies his constitutional obligations in enforcing the democracy’s laws, protecting the lives and property of it’s people, and safeguarding the health and morals of the community.
As the sheriffs were appointed in the New World, they acquired the power of arrest for all offenses attempted or committed in their presence, without a warrant. Any felony committed not in their presence could also be reasonable grounds for an arrest under the ancient common law, matching the exact measure for an arrest by any police officer today with one modern day addition – articulable facts
leading a reasonable police officer to believe there exists probable cause that the crime did, is, or will occur.
In conclusion, modern sheriff duties are performed by order of the people instead of by order of the King or Queen, so it is easy to see how the legal authority is politically oriented. Sheriffs can maneuver through court battles involving a challenge to their authority and come out successfully when they address the legal protections of their office concerning their constitutional obligations, and no legal system or authority in the United States can challenge it with any standing. As so, the sheriff and his deputies have retained their authority to arrest without a warrant for all crimes, however defined, committed in their presence, and for felonies not committed in their presence. These powers could not
be truncated when the American legal system changed from common law to statutory law due to the verbiage of the Constitution, so the Sheriff exists as both an ancient and a modern authority.