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Free US Law Dictionary

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Peace Officer

A law enforcement officer (also called peace officer), in North America, is any public-sector person charged with upholding the peace, mainly police officers, customs officers, correctional officers, probation officers, parole officers, and sheriffs or marshals and their deputies.

Modern legal codes use the term peace officer to include every public-sector person vested by the legislating state with law-enforcement authority—traditionally, anyone "sworn, badged, and armable" but, basically, who can arrest, or refer such arrest for a criminal prosecution. Hence, city police officers, county sheriffs' deputies, and state troopers are usually vested with the same authority within a given jurisdiction.

Jurisdictions may restrict the powers granted to those who have "peace-officer status" as opposed to "police status". For example, in New York State, all New York State Court Officers,[1] as well as Court clerks,[2] assigned to the 1st and 2nd Judicial Departments are classified as Peace Officers. However only the Uniformed Court Officers of the New York State Unified Court System may carry firearms without a pistol license.

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