“Other places like New York and parts of Colorado, the sheriff isn’t even an elected official.”
Where do you get your information? You have been misinformed.
I live in NY. Our County Sheriff is an elected official. He is the head of the County Sheriff Department which is our primary law enforcement agency. He is the top law enforcement officer in the county.
His role is most certainly not “largely ceremonial”.
My bad. It’s honestly a typo. I meant to type New York City. If you have doubts about the NYC sheriff, look it up.
Totally off topic, but if a resident of NYC is a New Yorker, what do you call residents of the state who don’t reside in NYC?