ABSTRACT
“Police authority” is the authority granted to law enforcement officers and agents so they may carry out the duties of their position. Police power is inherent in the states and, under this power, the states have passed laws defining crimes, regulating traffic, and providing for criminal procedural rules. The state’s police power is limited by three factors: the rights guaranteed by the Constitution, the necessity of a legitimate public purpose, and a reasonable exercise of that power. If, in carrying out the police powers of the state, there is a conflict between the enforcement of the statutes and protection of the constitutional rights as interpreted by the Supreme Court, the statute must give way. By broadly interpreting the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, Congress and the courts have extended the powers of the federal government, and in so doing made it possible to establish guidelines for state officials.
