Page 108 - The Lost Ways

Sheriffs could call for support in many ways, but one of their most valuable assets was
simply the community itself. People talked to their neighbors in a web of information
sharing that covered the district. If someone had a problem with pilfering around their
farm, pretty soon everyone else would know about it and be on the lookout.

Word would soon get to the sheriff, and he’d probably take a look around the area. Any
opportunist criminals would quickly see that the community was on the alert, and that
had a big deterrent effect.

Deputy Sheriffs

Where deterrence didn’t work, the sheriff had the power to deputize people to help him.
Larger towns might have full-time deputies that were paid from the sheriff’s share of the
taxes he collected. In smaller settlements, the sheriff might have a pool of men he knew
he could rely on but would only deputize when they were needed.

That’s the situation you’ll be in if society collapses; it’s not likely your local community
will be big enough to support full-time deputies.

A deputy sheriff, then and now, is a person appointed by the sheriff to carry out the
sheriff’s duties. They have all the powers of the sheriff himself, including investigating

crimes, making arrests, and detaining suspects and criminals. Traditionally, a deputy is an
employee of the sheriff, meaning they’re paid by the sheriff and are under their
command.

Posses

Because they had to be paid, the number of deputies a sheriff could employ was limited.
One option was to hire them only when needed, but sometimes so much manpower was
needed that it just wasn’t possible to hire that many people.

That’s where another of the sheriff’s powers came in: the right to raise a posse. This

comes from the tradition of Posse Comitatus, or “power of the community,” and like the
office of sheriff itself, it goes back to English common law.

A sheriff has the power to conscript any able-bodied man into a posse when manpower
is needed. Usually that happened when a fugitive had to be captured or a large group of
outlaws threatened the peace.

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