Mutual Pledge that organized the country at several levels. At the lowest level were tithing’s, 10 families grouped together who assumed mutual responsibility for the acts of their members. At the next level , 10 tithing’s or 100 families, were grouped together into a hundred.
Magistrates in 17 century were some officials whose duties included enforcing the law and keeping the peace.
Thief-takers – private detectives who were paid by the crown on a piecework bases.
County and Municipal Policing Despite the existence of the large federal enforcement bureaucracies and the state police agencies, most law enforcement and peacekeeping in rural, urban, and unincorporated areas is provided by county and municipal authorities. The office of sheriff has been established by either a state constitution or statutory law in all the states except Alaska. The sheriff serves as the chief law enforcement officer in his or her county and has countywide jurisdiction
The sheriff the first of the formal law enforcement agents to appear in the vast territories beyond Mississippi River, was closely modeled after his . British counterpart. But while the powers or the English sheriff had diminished over time, those of the American sheriff expanded to include not only the apprehension of criminals but also the conducting of elections, the collection of taxes, and the custody of public funds. Moreover, American sheriffs were eventually chosen by popular election.
The Posse. The origins of the posse go back many hundreds of years. During the time of Alfred the Great, when mutual pledges hound together the members of a tithing, one of the peacekeeping instruments was the posse cogitates, Latin for "the power of the county," which consisted of all the able-bodied men in a county. This group was at the absolute disposal of a sheriff, and members were required to respond when called on to do so. The institution