BEFORE THE BADGE Volume 1: The Constable The office is older than you think. Long before modern police departments, Massachusetts communities relied on local public officers to carry out responsibilities established by law and local government. Among those offices was the constable. But what was a constable then? Where did his authority come from? And how did an office rooted in seventeenth-century Massachusetts survive into the modern Commonwealth? Volume 1: The Constable begins the story, tracing the office from colonial Massachusetts to today and introducing the changing responsibilities that will be explored throughout Before the Badge. An old office. A changing Commonwealth. A history that continues today.
Volume 1: The Constable
The constable is one of Massachusetts' oldest public offices, with roots reaching back to the earliest days of the Commonwealth. But the constable of seventeenth-century Massachusetts was very different from what many people imagine today.
In this opening volume of Before the Badge, we travel back to colonial Massachusetts to explore the constable as a local public officer, the place the office held within the community, and the broad responsibilities that connected constables with the courts, local government, and public order.
We then follow the office through a changing Massachusetts to the present day, where constables continue to perform important civil process and public-service functions under modern law.
Volume 1 sets the foundation for the series. Future volumes will take a closer look at the individual duties, powers, and historical practices that shaped the office over nearly four centuries.
Before the Badge is a historical mini-series from The Constable Files, exploring the history and evolution of the Massachusetts constable.
