38 Section 4.1: Early History of Policing
The legal system of the United States traces its roots back to the common law of England. The enforcement of those ancient laws was the responsibility of a criminal justice system that grew and evolved over a protracted period. The protections against the abuse of police power that Americans enjoy today have their roots in English constitutional documents such as the Magna Carta. Legally limited police authority and a decentralized organizational structure are two of the most important features of modern American policing attributable to its English colonial past.
Ancient Policing
Historians and anthropologists regard the earliest system of law enforcement as kin policing. In this primitive system, members of a clan or tribe banded together to enforce the rules of the group on rogue members. The essence of kin policing was the idea that an attack on one member of the group was tantamount to an attack on the entire group. Note that this method was extremely informal: there were no courts or written system of laws. Behavioral expectations were derived from group norms and customs.
When formal, written laws emerged, the need to enforce those laws emerged concurrently. King Hammurabi of Babylon is credited with the first written criminal code. The Code of Hammurabi was carved in large stones in the tenth century B.C. The codes of ancient Greece and Rome have had an influence on Western law, as has the Mosaic Code.
Among the earliest documented Western systems of law and law enforcement was the mutual pledge system. The mutual pledge system consisted of groups of ten families bound to uphold the law, bring violators to court, and keep the peace. These groups of ten families were known as tithings. Each tithing was governed by a tithingman. All men over the age of twelve were required to raise the hue and cry when a crime was detected, and pursue the criminal with all of the men of the tithing. A group of ten tithings was called the hundred, and the office of constable developed out of this organizational unit. If a criminal could not be produced in court, then the Crown could fine the entire hundred. In other words, every man was responsible for the conduct of every other man.
Hundreds were combined into administrative units known as Shires (or Counties), under the jurisdiction of the shire-reeve . The shire-reeve, whose job it was to maintain the King’s peace in the Shire, was later shortened to the modern term sheriff. The sheriff has the power to raise all able-bodied men in the county to pursue a criminal. This power was known by the Latin phrase posse comitatus.
In 1066, the Normans invaded England and seized the throne. The Norman King, William the Conqueror, quickly modified the mutual pledge system to aid in the consolidation of his power. The modified system-known as the frankpledge system-was a tightening of the system then Normans found in place.
By the end of the thirteenth century, the constable s