Law Enforcement Turf Wars

Dear Large Law Enforcement Agency,

As an employee of Small Law Enforcement Agency I am very upset by the arrival of your Large Law Enforcement Agency to my area on account of your intention to take over administration of an important case. I believe that my Small Law Enforcement Agency is adequately equipped and totally capable of handling the investigation of this case. Despite our failure to apprehend the culprit so far, we believe that we are on the right track and that said failure is not due to a lack of competency on our part, but rather a reflection of the difficulty of the case involved, most likely due to the clever and evasive nature of the culprit. For this reason the encroachment of Large Law Enforcement Agency on our jurisdiction is not only unnecessary but inappropriate.

It is especially upsetting to me when agents who typically operate outside of my jurisdiction circumvent traditional channels in order to take control of my case and dispense orders to me and my colleagues. We feel as though we should not be answering to Large Law Enforcement Agency because of the greater amount of autonomy we are usually afforded. It also makes us appear to the public as though we are inferior practitioners of law enforcement. Additionally, when the culprit is finally apprehended, we believe that a disproportionate amount of the credit will be assigned to Large Law Enforcement Agency, when in fact a majority of the credit should rightfully be placed with Small Law Enforcement Agency. This is because it will undoubtedly be the case that both our foundational investigative work done independently as well as our share of the work done in collaboration and/or under direction of Large Law Enforcement Agency contributed the greatest amount to a successful final outcome.

Furthermore, in addition to believing that this intervention by large law enforcement agency is a counterproductive waste of public resources, I find the Internal Affairs investigation into the goings on of me and my colleagues regarding the incident which precipitated the forced involvement of Large Law Enforcement Agency to be particularly offensive. It is my belief that instead of spending valuable resources investigating me or my colleagues, it should be we who are allowed to continue our investigation of the true evil-doers.

Regards,

Local Law Enforcement Agent

– BE