The Firefighter thread spurred this question.

[MD11pilot]

Since there are volunteer fire departments, is there an all volunteer police department or if the area is that low of a population the SD or SP usually covers it?

[PoliceNewbie]

If its within a city's jurisdiction, the city will cover it. If its within the county, the Sheriff's department has jurisdiction. At least thats the way it is in North Carolina.

[Kypd114]

volunteer police... god help us if there ever is such a thing. I'm alright with reserves who help full-timers... but if you live in an area that has "volunteer police" like volunteer firemen (evidence destruction technicians)... i'd highly consider moving.

[Smurfette_76]

If its within a city's jurisdiction, the city will cover it. If its within the county, the Sheriff's department has jurisdiction. At least thats the way it is in North Carolina.

? There are plenty of cities in NC that are covered by SOs and not PDs. Rather safe to say that if there isn't a PD to cover the area, the SO handles it.

[orlandofed5-0]

In PA. sheriff's office's do not do patrol work so any areas not covered by a municpal agency would be covered by the state police. While some agencies do have auxiliary police, they are not state trained or certified and as such can not make arrests per Pa law.

[CruiserClass]

Reserves are the closest equivalent to volunteer police. There are some small departments where all or most of the officers are reserves, with maybe just the chief being a paid position. Usually there is also a paid department that will cover the area as well if there's no reserves available, such as the Sheriff's Department or a nearby PD.

[mookster]

In AZ, any unincorporated areas, not within a city limit, are covered by the respective county Sheriff's Office. Since my county is massive and there are areas that can take an hour plus response time, DPS will handle some of the minor calls for us. If it's serious, we drive as fast as reasonably and prudent to get there.

[PABear31]

From 1872 to 2005, there was an all volunteer, unpaid police force that had jurisdiction in two counties in northwestern Pennsylvania. They were officially designated as the State Police of Erie and Craawford Counties. They were originally formed to combat horse theft in those two counties. They had full police powers but with no required training. Membership in the force was determined by election. The force answered to no governmental body. After the formantion of the Pennsylvania State Police in 1905, the State Police of Erie and Crawford Counties gradually gave up enforcing the laws and became a service organization that primarily provided traffic and crowd control at local events. Their authority was revoked by the legislature in 2005 over concerns that the public would confuse the group with the PSP. At the force's peak in the 1940's it had more than 4,000 members at that time it was more than 4x's the size of the PSP which covered all 67 counties of Pennsylvania.

[Sleuth]

There is a well known "gun writer" who claims to have been a Captain on his local PD. Turns out they had 3 fulltimers, and 7 'reserves', and he was in charge of the reserves. So he is correct, but usually fails to mention his real role.

[Michigan]

Since there are volunteer fire departments, is there an all volunteer police department or if the area is that low of a population the SD or SP usually covers it?

That's why there is a state police and county sheriff to cover "all the areas" not covered by local city, township or village pd's.

[MD11pilot]

Yea I'd figure there would be none but it was worth asking. Thanks for the answers y'all.