Description
Maintain order and protect life and property by enforcing local, tribal, state, or federal laws and ordinances. Perform a combination of the following duties: patrol a specific area; direct traffic; issue traffic summonses; investigate accidents; apprehend and arrest suspects, or serve legal processes of courts. Includes police officers working at educational institutions.
- • Locate and confiscate real or personal property, as directed by court order.
- • Provide road information to assist motorists.
- • Identify, pursue, and arrest suspects and perpetrators of criminal acts.
- • Provide for public safety by maintaining order, responding to emergencies, protecting people and property, enforcing motor vehicle and criminal laws, and promoting good community relations.
- • Record facts to prepare reports that document incidents and activities.
- • Render aid to accident survivors and other persons requiring first aid for physical injuries.
- • Investigate illegal or suspicious activities.
- • Review facts of incidents to determine if criminal act or statute violations were involved.
- • Monitor, note, report, and investigate suspicious persons and situations, safety hazards, and unusual or illegal activity in patrol area.
- • Testify in court to present evidence or act as witness in traffic and criminal cases.
- • Drive vehicles or patrol specific areas to detect law violators, issue citations, and make arrests.
- • Monitor traffic to ensure motorists observe traffic regulations and exhibit safe driving procedures.
- • Relay complaint and emergency-request information to appropriate agency dispatchers.
- • Verify that the proper legal charges have been made against law offenders.
- • Photograph or draw diagrams of crime or accident scenes and interview principals and eyewitnesses.
- • Evaluate complaint and emergency-request information to determine response requirements.
- • Execute arrest warrants, locating and taking persons into custody.
- • Patrol specific area on foot, horseback, or motorized conveyance, responding promptly to calls for assistance.
- • Investigate traffic accidents and other accidents to determine causes and to determine if a crime has been committed.
- • Direct traffic flow and reroute traffic in case of emergencies.
- • Notify patrol units to take violators into custody or to provide needed assistance or medical aid.
- • Serve statements of claims, subpoenas, summonses, jury summonses, orders to pay alimony, and other court orders.
- • Question individuals entering secured areas to determine their business, directing and rerouting individuals as necessary.
- • Patrol and guard courthouses, grand jury rooms, or assigned areas to provide security, enforce laws, maintain order, and arrest violators.
- • Transport or escort prisoners and defendants en route to courtrooms, prisons or jails, attorneys' offices, or medical facilities.
- • Inform citizens of community services and recommend options to facilitate longer-term problem resolution.
- • Process prisoners, and prepare and maintain records of prisoner bookings and prisoner status during booking and pre-trial process.
- • Supervise law enforcement staff, such as jail staff, officers, and deputy sheriffs.
- • Place people in protective custody.
- • Conduct community programs for all ages concerning topics such as drugs and violence.
Related specializations
Interview options
Interview options
Interviewee gender
Interviewee accent
Interview time
Related Pathways
Public Service & Safety
View
Source
Tasks & skills:
O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
Learn more
Sources & Standards:
This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
