What were the major police-related offices and their functions during the early English and colonial periods?

Question

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Answer 1

There were four primary criminal justice officers in the early English and colonial periods: the sheriff, the constable, the coroner, and the justice of the peace.

Sheriff: In early England, the job of the sheriff, or shire reeve, was to maintain law and order in the tithings. He assisted the king in fiscal, military, and judicial affairs. However, with the creation of the positions of coroner and later justice of the peace, the power of the sheriff’s office in England significantly decreased. The first sheriffs in America appeared in the colonial period. Originally the position was very similar to the English model, but the duties of the sheriff included apprehending criminals, caring for prisoners, executing civil process, conducting elections, and collecting taxes. Frontier sheriffs were popular figures in the late 19th century. Today, the sheriff is the basic source of rural crime control and the sheriff’s powers and duties are very similar to those carried out in colonial and 19th century America.

Constable: The office of the constable first appeared in Anglo-Saxon England and was responsible for pursuing felons. In the Middle Ages, constables had a wide variety of duties, including collecting taxes, supervising highways, and serving as magistrate. After the creation of the justice of the peace, the office of the constable declined in prominence and social prestige and became limited to making arrests with warrants issued by a justice of the peace. The office was discarded by Parliament in 1856. Constables in colonial America experienced a similar process of disintegration. In the colonial period, they controlled the night watch but by the early 20th century the popularity of the position declined markedly.

Coroner: Coroners were originally elected and included a wide variety of duties, not all of which related to criminal matters. In felony cases, coroners could conduct preliminary hearings as well as a coroner’s inquest, which was held to determine the cause of death and the party responsible for it. The office of the coroner in America emerged in a similar fashion but was slow in gaining recognition as many of the coroner’s duties were already being performed by sheriffs and justices of the peace. Since the early 20th century, the coroner has basically performed a single function, that of determining the causes of all deaths by violence or other suspicious circumstances.

Justice of the Peace: The justice of the peace (JP) first appeared in England no later than 1195. Early JPs presided over criminal trials and issued arrests to constables so they could make arrests. The office came under criticism by the 16th century because the only qualification was to be a wealthy landholder who could buy his way into office. By the early 20th century in England, the property-holding requirement was eliminated and the civil jurisdiction of the office of the JP was eliminated so that JPs had jurisdiction only in criminal matters. In colonial America, JPs were elected and had jurisdiction in both civil and criminal matters.