>The number of law enforcement agencies operating in Houston and the surrounding area is insane. This seems to be a peculiar American trait, and one I don't understand. We have:
>
>HPD (the Houston Police Dept);
>Harris County Sherriff Dept;
>Harris County Constables (I think they are part of the sherriff's dept. but their cars are marked differently);
>Fort Bend County Sherriff Dept (Houston covers a wide area);
>Metro Police Dept (their jurisdiction is a little fuzzy but primary relates to traffic and mass transit);
>DPS (Texas Dept. of Public Safety - the state highway patrol);
>INS (immigration);
>ATF (Bureau of Alchohol, Tobacco, and Firearms).
>
>Plus, the school districts also have their own police departments (which makes no sense) and you'll see "Federal Police" (I have no idea who they are) out at the airport.

And when the western reporters were mentioning "paramilitary formations" in ex-Yugoslav wars, I thought they were using the term pejoratively.

Come to think of it, the prefix para- is quite common here, and nobody objects being called so. You got paramedics, paralegal, parachooters, paradise, paradox, paramilitary, paragrapher, parameter...