Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Vanderbilt Law Review

Publication Date

10-2026

ISSN

0042-2533

Page Number

1605

Keywords

agency police, data sharing, constitutional protections

Disciplines

Agency | Constitutional Law | Law

Abstract

The police badge has migrated deep into the administrative state. Parks, schools, transit, housing, revenue, conservation, insurance, and gaming agencies now field tens of thousands of sworn “Agency Police”—often with full arrest powers despite missions far removed from general public safety. The footprint of these officers is significant and expanding, outpacing the growth of traditional law enforcement. Far from being limited to certain communities, Agency Police attract support across the political spectrum, from law-and-order policymakers to reformers. And yet, Agency Police are largely ignored in legal scholarship. The result is that a large slice of U.S. criminal enforcement is poorly mapped and weakly theorized.

This Article brings Agency Police into focus. In doing so, it catalogues their varieties, explores the safety and regulatory benefits they bring, and reveals that they import both familiar policing tactics and familiar risks. This Article also sheds light on the distinct concerns raised by the proliferation of Agency Police: budgetary “bluewashing,” mission drift in enforcement and data sharing, arbitrage of constitutional protections, and public confusion about rights and authority.

Study of Agency Police offers important lessons for both administrative agencies and current debates over alternatives to policing. Rather than toggling between police and civilians, this Article urges a customizable approach to particular public safety needs. When agencies require traditional policing services, they ought to rely on traditional police; when they have specialized needs, this Article suggests a “Limited Cops” paradigm—creating bespoke officers with mission-tethered responsibilities, constrained arrest and force powers, bounded inspection and search authority, and hard data silos.

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