Law enforcement is the activity of agencies and people responsible for enforcing laws and maintaining order. It involves the investigation, apprehension, and detention of individuals who commit criminal offenses. It also includes activities such as code enforcement, building codes, and monitoring of the application of regulations or codes of practice.
In the 19th century, improvements in technology, greater global connections, and changes to the sociopolitical order led to the development of national, regional, and municipal civilian police forces in practically every country. In addition, international law enforcement cooperation was facilitated by the establishment of the International Criminal Police Organization, now called Interpol.
Often, LEAs are geographically divided into operations areas for administrative and logistical efficiency reasons. These are sometimes referred to as command, division, or office areas. In the United States, these are sometimes known as beats.
It is common for a federal law enforcement agency to also serve as the sole police agency for one or more divisions of a federated country, such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which acts as the police agency for all three of Canada’s territories. This is often done when the divisions have little or no independent legal status and rely on the federation’s law enforcement authority for protection and security.
This is a POST-certified course that covers a wide variety of specialized investigative disciplines from cybercrime to homicide. It provides the law enforcement officer with hands-on computer training to identify hardware and software used in investigations as well as an overview of how cellular phones work including how to acquire evidence from Peer 2 Peer, Swatting, and other types of social media.