The State Police: An American Experiment in Rural Protection
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3000300103 |
| Author | Bruce Smith |
| Date | 01 January 1930 |
| Published date | 01 January 1930 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The
State Police:
An
American
Experiment in
Rural
Protection
By BRUCE
SMITH
National Institute of Public Administration, New York
City
THE American rural police system is derived from England.
Our
sheriffs of the counties, as well as our constables of
the townships, boroughs, and villages, all bear a striking
resemblance to their English prototypes as the latter existed
when the first local governments were being set up in America.
In
the face of increasing evidence of failure, the system still
continues.
The
reasons for this persistence of outworn police agencies
lie deep in the history of the nation.
The
founders of our
federal union had a lively suspicion of centralized govern-
mental power, particularly when exercised from a great
distance. Out of this feeling of distrust there has come down
to us a carefully balanced constitutional scheme which reserves
to the several states the bulk of governmental power, and
confers upon the federal government only such powers as are
necessary to its existence.
The
same influences which have
produced this scheme of federal-state relations have operated
to develop a somewhat similar relationship between the state
governments and those of the local communities.
The
state
in fact is the keystone of our entire governmental structure ;
for while the federal government is in a limited sense the
creature of the states, the local units, such as cities, counties,
towns, and villages, are also created by the states as
convenient instrumentalities for the exercise of a wide range
of governmental functions. With few exceptions, all of
this machinery for local administration might be wiped out
without undue formality were it not for the fact that distrust
of centralized governing power still continues to exercise
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