Authority of Sheriff in the Corporate Limits of a City

December 2001

The authority of the county sheriff and the authority of city or town police departments are generally concurrent within the cities and towns located a particular county. Neither the county sheriff nor the city police have exclusive authority to investigate crimes and enforce laws within city and town boundaries. However, city and town police departments have the exclusive power to enforce violations of local ordinance provisions within their jurisdictions that are not also violations of state law unless the city has an interlocal agreement with the county which grants such authority for enforcement to the county sheriff.

Attorney General's Opinions

The Office of the Attorney General has been asked to clarify the relationship between county sheriffs departments and city/town police departments in a number of opinions (not a comprehensive listing):

AGO 1990 No. 4 The conclusion in this opinion is that the county sheriff does have a general duty to enforce state laws in both incorporated and unincorporated areas of the county but that there is no obligation to provide cities with a specified number of police officers or with a specific level of police services.

AGO 1961-62 No. 25 The conclusion is that the both the city police and the county sheriff have concurrent authority to investigate felonies occurring within the city or town limits.

AGLO 1974 No. 96 The conclusion is that the county sheriff has full jurisdiction to investigate motor vehicle accidents involving a violation of state law, even within incorporated cities and towns.

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