It was actually pretty neat. Anyone could go to court and bring a criminal in, and do it in the name of the AG. So if I think you stole something from me, I could drag you into court, present the evidence, and get a judgment.
Some courts had officers but most didn't. They relied on the people doing all the work for them.
The first police were just court officials, and gradually they started using them to make arrests rather than having the people do it. Then they started testifying of crimes. It all went downhill from there. Used to be you had to bring the guy in yourself.
I believe we had constables. Also Sheriffs are recorded in the 1660s in America. They usually only acted on court issued warrants like a modern constable I believe.
For instance, this article mentions North Carolina Sheriffs being established in 1662.
The municipal police forces are a much more modern invention, that is what most people refer to when they say they didn't exist until the 1800s, I believe.
True fact: we didn't have any police in the US when we started.
Frontier justice
It was actually pretty neat. Anyone could go to court and bring a criminal in, and do it in the name of the AG. So if I think you stole something from me, I could drag you into court, present the evidence, and get a judgment.
Some courts had officers but most didn't. They relied on the people doing all the work for them.
The first police were just court officials, and gradually they started using them to make arrests rather than having the people do it. Then they started testifying of crimes. It all went downhill from there. Used to be you had to bring the guy in yourself.
Make bounty hunters great again
No disintegrations
This is the way
Been there. Done that.
I believe we had constables. Also Sheriffs are recorded in the 1660s in America. They usually only acted on court issued warrants like a modern constable I believe.
For instance, this article mentions North Carolina Sheriffs being established in 1662.
https://www.ncpedia.org/sheriff
The municipal police forces are a much more modern invention, that is what most people refer to when they say they didn't exist until the 1800s, I believe.
Correct. It’s also the reason that Sheriffs operate at the top of their own command structure.
We should return to that.