Editing Police (section)

==By country==
{{Main|Law enforcement by country}}
[[File:Hungaria, Estonia, Dutch and Polish police cars together.JPG|thumb|[[Rendőrség|Hungarian]], [[Estonian Police|Estonian]], [[National Police Corps (Netherlands)|Dutch]], and [[Policja|Polish]] police cars in 2003]]
Police forces are usually organized and funded by some level of government. The level of government responsible for policing varies from place to place, and may be at the national, regional or local level. Some countries have police forces that serve the same territory, with their [[jurisdiction]] depending on the type of crime or other circumstances. Other countries, such as [[Austria]], [[Chile]], [[Israel]], [[New Zealand]], the [[Philippines]], [[South Africa]] and [[Sweden]], have a single national police force.<ref>{{cite book |title=Challenges of Policing Democracies: A World Perspective |author1=Das, Dilip K. |author2=Otwin Marenin |publisher=Routledge |year=2000 |page=17|isbn=978-90-5700-558-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/challengesofpoli0000unse/page/17 }}</ref>

In some places with multiple national police forces, one common arrangement is to have a civilian police force and a paramilitary [[gendarmerie]], such as the [[Police Nationale]] and [[National Gendarmerie]] in [[France]].<ref name="bayley-1979"/> The French policing system spread to other countries through the [[Napoleonic Wars]]<ref name="Emsley">{{cite book | first = Clive| last = Emsley| title = Gendarmes and the State in Nineteenth-Century Europe|edition= 1999|pages= 52–57 | publisher = Oxford University Press| isbn= 978-0-19-820798-6| year = 1999}}</ref> and the [[French colonial empire]].<ref name="SyrGend1">{{cite book |last1=Deep |first1=Daniel |title=Occupying Syria Under the French Mandate: Insurgency, Space and State Formation |date=2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-00006-3 |page=204 }}</ref><ref name="Congo">{{cite book|title=Historical Dictionary of Republic of the Congo|last1=Clark|first1=John|last2=Decalo|first2=Samuel|location=Lanham|publisher=Scarecrow Press|date=2012|isbn=978-0-8108-7989-8|pages=44–49 }}</ref> Another example is the [[Policía Nacional (Spain)|Policía Nacional]] and [[Guardia Civil]] in [[Spain]]. In both France and Spain, the civilian force polices urban areas and the paramilitary force polices rural areas. Italy has a similar arrangement with the [[Polizia di Stato]] and [[Carabinieri]], though their jurisdictions overlap more. Some countries have separate agencies for uniformed police and detectives, such as the [[Military Police (Brazil)|Military Police]] and [[Civil Police (Brazil)|Civil Police]] in [[Brazil]] and the [[Carabineros de Chile|Carabineros]] and [[Investigations Police of Chile|Investigations Police]] in [[Chile]].

Other countries have sub-national police forces, but for the most part their jurisdictions do not overlap. In many countries, especially [[Federalism|federations]], there may be two or more tiers of police force, each serving different levels of government and enforcing different subsets of the law. In [[Australia]] and [[Germany]], the majority of policing is carried out by state (i.e. provincial) police forces, which are supplemented by a federal police force. Though not a federation, the [[United Kingdom]] has a similar arrangement, where policing is primarily the responsibility of a regional police force and specialist units exist at the national level. In [[Canada]], the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police]] (RCMP) are the federal police, while municipalities can decide whether to run a local police service or to contract local policing duties to a larger one. Most urban areas have a local police service, while most rural areas contract it to the RCMP, or to the provincial police in [[Ontario]] and [[Quebec]].

The [[United States]] has a highly decentralized and fragmented system of law enforcement, with over 17,000 state and local law enforcement agencies.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ojp.gov/bjs/lawenf.htm |title=Law Enforcement Statistics |publisher=Bureau of Justice Statistics |access-date=2007-05-23 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061002175933/http://www.ojp.gov/bjs/lawenf.htm |archive-date = October 2, 2006}}</ref> These agencies include local police, county law enforcement (often in the form of a [[Sheriffs in the United States|sheriff's office]], or [[County police#United States|county police]]), [[State police (United States)|state police]] and [[Federal law enforcement in the United States|federal law enforcement agencies]]. Federal agencies, such as the [[FBI]], only have jurisdiction over federal crimes or those that involve more than one state. Other federal agencies have jurisdiction over a specific type of crime. Examples include the [[United States Federal Protective Service|Federal Protective Service]], which patrols and protects government buildings; the [[United States Postal Inspection Service|Postal Inspection Service]], which protect [[United States Postal Service]] facilities, vehicles and items; the [[United States Park Police|Park Police]], which protect national parks; and [[Amtrak Police]], which patrol [[Amtrak]] stations and trains. There are also some government agencies and uniformed services that perform police functions in addition to other duties, such as the [[United States Coast Guard|Coast Guard]].