The term "Pine County Sheriff's Department" would be used as a subordinate unit to a local government. However, it can be used interchangeably, except when referring to either the Department or the Office of the Sheriff.
Depending on where you live, the Sheriff's department will have jurisdiction over the entire County.
However, if a city in the county already has a Police Department, the Sheriff's Department will not patrol there.
The Sheriff's Department will have Patrol Stations in Contracted cities and the unincorporated land of the County.
For example:
The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department is under the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors.
They have patrol stations in the Contract cities; City of Agoura Hills City of Artesia City of Avalon City of Bellflower City of Bradbury City of Calabasas City of Carson City of Cerritos City of Commerce City of Compton City of Diamond Bar City of Duarte City of Hawaiian Gardens City of Hidden Hills City of Industry City of La Canada Flintridge City of La Habra Heights City of Lakewood City of La Mirada City of Lancaster City of La Puente City of Lawndale City of Lomita City of Lynwood City of Malibu City of Norwalk City of Palmdale City of Paramount City of Pico Rivera City of Rancho Palos Verdes City of Rolling Hills City of Rolling Hills Estates City of Rosemead City of San Dimas City of Santa Clarita City of South El Monte City of Temple City City of Walnut City of West Hollywood The city of Westlake Village.
Other LAC Cities have their own Police Department that patrols their own city.
A Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy is sworn as an officer of the County and the State. Therefore, they retain their police powers outside of their jurisdiction but it is not their job to do police work outside their jurisdiction.
County Sheriff's Departments also hold a wide area of responsibilities.
Let's go over the Orange County Sheriff's Department just south of LAC.
The OCSD was created when Los Angeles County was divided to create Orange County. They were just typical Sheriff's Office/department in 1897.
After World War II, the Department merged with the Coroner's Office, thus added the responsibility of examining bodies to the list. In 1975, the department merged with two more agencies, the Orange County Harbor Patrol and the Staton Police Department. Thus expanding the Department's patrol borders. In 1999, the merger with the Orange County Marshal's Department saw the addition of Bailiff Duty and County Court Security to the list of the Sheriff's Department's functions.
This is why many modern-day Sheriff's Departments/Agencies have many Contract Cities, oversee Patrol, Jails, Courts, and coroner.
This does not mean they have higher authority than Police Officers.
However, Monoford PD and Pine County SD might be structured differently. Like how the LVMPD (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department) has jurisdiction over all of Clark County, the main Police Force of the City of Las Vegas, and is headed by the Office of the Sheriff of Clark County.
Let's go over your points:
"1. Being the City Police department, having jurisdiction all over the map like normal no matter where they are."
Let's model Monoford as a County/City in California(Monolith). Strangely in the game, the Police Department has jurisdiction over the two Counties, HOWEVER. Pine County is not seen as its own, but more of the map's unincorporated areas, and under the municipality of Monoford County. So it'd make sense that the Pine County patrol there would only make sense if both of the counties are one and in the same. However, as stated before, the structure can be different, such as the structure of the LVMPD.
"2. Sheriff's Office, Cities are located within Counties. The Sheriff's Office is the (County Sheriff) therefore higher authority than a city police department."
Just how I stated earlier in bold, just you don't outrank a Municipal Police Officer just because you are part of a Department that oversees more land and responsibilities. That is why Cities don't typically both have a Sheriff's Department and a Police Department because only one is necessary, and duplication of efforts is the least of what everybody wants. The Sheriff of a County is an elected Offical like Mayor and Supervisor and is the county's Chief Law Enforcement Officer with his own cabinet. The Sheriff is a boss, but not the boss of the PD.
The Sheriff's Department is not the police's police; however, they may oversee investigations of a Department if wanted.
Police Officers, Sheriff's Deputies, and Highway Patrol Officers/State Troopers have different responsibilities to take. In the Patrol level, it does in the order of this:
Police Officers: Tend to focus more on enforcing the Municipal Code of the City, the Vehicle Code, and the State Penal Codes.
Sheriff's Deputies: Tend to focus more on enforcing the Penal Code of the State, municipal codes of a contracted city, and the Vehicle Code
Highway Patrol Officers/State Troopers: Tend to focus primarily on Traffic Enforcement on the Vehicle Code; however, they may patrol inland streets and enforce any law or be backup units to a local call.
Bottom Line:
I support the idea of extending the Chain of Command of the Sheriff's Department. However, I do not support the Sheriff's Department's unrealistic sentiment of having authority over the Police Department, nor patrolling within City Limits unless it is a Contracted City of the Sheriff.
One solution to resolve this is to give Pine County its autonomy as its own self-governing County. This way, the MPD won't be patroling Pine County.
Another solution to resolve this is to merge the two counties into one whole county. The MPD would patrol Sunset Island, Lower Alder, Reed Industrial, and Juniper, whereas the land used to be Pine County will now be unincorporated Monoford County, in which the Sheriff's Department, now the Monoford Sheriff's Department, will patrol.
In Addition to either of the two solutions, we can merge the Pine County Correctional Officers into the Sheriff's Department, as Deputies also work in the jails. This will give use to the extended Chain of Command of the Sheriff's Department, giving the Undersheriff, Second-In-Command of the Department will act as the facility's Warden. This can also give the Sheriff's Department a new job as Inmate Transportation for the MPD, in which the MPD processes a prisoner and can be hauled off to the Jail by Inmate Transportation Deputies. This way, we can keep the original Correctional Officers when an Alcatraz Prison is created in Monoford County, a department of the State.
The Office of the Sheriff is basically the Elected Sheriff's cabinet, in which the Sheriff could elect his own people to serve as the Executive Staff of the Sheriff.
This Office can include and not limited to:
Sheriff-Coroner(Basically the Sheriff)
Undersheriff
Assistant Sheriff
(3) Assistant Sheriffs
(#) Division Chiefs (of Court Services, Patrol Divisions, Investigative, etc.)
This Idea: Partial Agreement
