I. Read and translate the text. The American Experience

The British colonists brought with them English institutions, including system of law enforcement. In towns like Boston, Philadelphia constables were appointed and watches created. Counties elected sheriffs to enforce the law.

Constables performed a variety of duties, including law enforcement functions like serving warrants, making arrests, and testifying in court. Residents had an obligation to serve as constables and watchmen. Boston and Philadelphia imposed large fines for failure to serve.

Outside the cities, the chief law enforcement officer was the county sheriff. The position was considered one of considerable prestige and power, and typically was given to a member of the local elite. The sheriff responded to formal complaints lodged by members of the community, made arrests as well as supervising elections and collecting taxes. Paid by fees for services rendered, the sheriff could earn more for tax collection than for law enforcement. In colonial America there was virtually no crime prevention, while limitations on personnel and resources resulted in largely investigation and order maintenance functions.

In the nineteenth century, and especially in the post-civil war years, paid professional police forces were finally introduced in the United States.

As the nation expanded, social disorder increased. Expansion created settlements in the West without well-developed local government to maintain order or enforce law. The absence of effective government in many of the newly settled parts in the West created a vacuum that was often filled by private citizens taking the law into their own hands. Vigilante groups, which typically consisted of a few hundred people led by the town elite, would track down criminals or people creating disorder in the settlement and administer 'justice' to them.

In federal territories, United States marshals were the principal law enforcement officers.

Once an area became a state law, law enforcement became the responsibility of state and local officials. In the counties, sheriffs were the chief peace officers. Cities and towns settled in the latter part of the nineteenth century created police forces like those that by then developed in the eastern cities.

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Private police were used in the West along with official and citizen forces.

Active vocabulary

Perform, to serve a warrant, to testify, obligation, to impose a fine, failure, complaint, community, tax, prevention, fulfilment, maintenance, vigilante, to track down, to administer, responsibility.

II. Answer the questions.

1. What did the British colonists bring to America?

2. What were the duties of constables?

3. Who had an obligation to serve as a constables and watchmen?

4. What measure were taken to those who failed to serve?

5. What was the chief law enforcement officer outside the cities?

6. Who was given the position of the county sheriff?

7. What were the sheriff's duties?

8. When were paid professional police forces introduced in the USA?

9. Why did the citizens take in law in their own hands?

10. Who were the principal law enforcement officers in federal territories?