The contemporary sheriff operates in various capacities in the 48 contiguous states. Alaska has no county government and therefore has no sheriffs. Hawaii does not have sheriff's, however, they do have deputy sheriffs that serve within the department of public safety. The vast majority of sheriffs are elected with exception in the state of Rhode Island, where sheriffs are appointed by the governor to serve for 10 year terms. There are some metropolitan areas like New York City (as previously alluded to) Denver, Colorado; King County, Washington; Multnomah County, Oregon; Dade County, Florida; and Nassau and Westchester Counties of New York State that have either appointed sheriffs or no sheriffs. Some independent cities have sheriffs, like Baltimore, Maryland and the St. Louis, Missouri. Virginia has 30 independent cities that elect a sheriff as well as all of the counties. In all there are some 3100 counties in the United States that have sheriffs.¹⁵²

The sheriff serves multiple functions, and the roles vary by jurisdiction. In general the roles are: conservator of the peace, jailer, court bailiff, server of court process, tax collector, and in some cases the county treasurer. The sheriff has statutory law enforcement responsibilities in all but nine of the 48 states that have a sheriff, and jail responsibilities in all but four states. According to a U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics profile in 1993, sheriffs employ a total of 224,236 personnel. About 9 in 10 sheriff's departments have responsibility for investigating crimes. Departments in jurisdictions with a population of less than 100,000 are more likely to be responsible for investigating violent crimes than in larger jurisdictions. Departments serving a population of 500,000 to 999,999 are least likely to be the primary investigating agency within their jurisdiction for criminal matters.¹⁵³

In 1993, 97% of all sheriff's departments were responsible for court related functions, such as serving civil process, 93% provided court security, 92% responded to calls for service, and 88% provided a routine road patrol service. Many sheriff's departments had other responsibilities: 80% dispatched calls for service, 79% operated a county jail, 77% were involved in traffic enforcement and 65% participated in search and rescue operations. For fiscal year 1993, sheriff's departments had operating expenditures of $10.7 billion dollars. Operating expenditures averaged $66,500 per sworn officer and $45,900 per employee. To fund the various components of sheriff's departments, it cost an average of $45 per resident in 1993.¹⁵⁴

In 1993, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department was identified as the largest sheriff's department, with 11,285 full-time employees. Nationwide, there were 17 sheriff's departments that employed 1000 or more sworn officers and more than 300 departments employed more than 100 officers. In contrast to larger departments, nearly 1000 departments employed fewer than 10 officers and 19 sheriff's departments had just one sworn officer. About half of all sheriff's department officers worked for 184 departments located in jurisdictions with 250,000 or more residents. On average, sheriff's departments nationwide, employed 73 full-time employees.¹⁵⁵