Deputy

Deputies are law enforcement officers working for an agency headed by a sheriff. They are sometimes referred to by the title sheriff's deputy, deputy sheriff, sheriff's police, or sheriff's officer, and are so-titled because they are deputized by the sheriff and charged with performing all the duties prescribed to the sheriff by that state's law. In some states a sheriff may not be a sworn peace officer, but merely an elected civilian official lacking police powers who oversees the department and its sworn peace officers. Law enforcement officers working for such departments may be subdivided, sometimes titled general deputy and special deputy.

In the 2002 film Eight Legged Freaks, a middle-aged man named Pete Willis was the Deputy of Prosperity, Arizona. He worked under Sheriff Samantha Parker. Pete Willis was one of several key figures involved in protecting prosperity against a horde of giant spiders. He first noticed them when an over-sized spider got into the drywall of his home and killed his cat. Although Pete nearly died several times during the course of these events, he managed to survive. He even credited mutated spider blood with making his hair start to grow back again.