Why are there so many different types of police in the United States?

There are various levels of law enforcement throughout the United States that can range from federal, state, county, city, town, you name it.

For federal law enforcement, there's agencies like the FBIDEAUS Marshals, Border Patrol, Secret Service , and the ATF .

Hawaii is the only state without a statewide police force.

For local police, some examples are the NYPD , LAPD and Chicago PD .

Only 23 states call their departments by that name, but Alaska and Arkansas are the only states with both a Highway Patrol and state police.

State police typically deal with patrolling highways and dealing with traffic, but they respond and deal with all sorts of scenarios and crimes, especially in rural areas where there isn't much local police patrolling.

Federal agencies enforce federal law, not state law, but state police enforce their respective state's law.

All levels of law enforcement have some sort of SWAT component.

Despite their differences, there are plenty of opportunities and instances where all levels of police work together.

There's also no common standard for entering law enforcement across the board.