In common law, a hue and cry is a process by which bystanders are summoned to assist in the apprehension of a criminal who has been witnessed in the act of committing a crime.

All able-bodied men, upon hearing the shouts, were obliged to assist in the pursuit of the criminal, which makes it comparable to the posse comitatus.

It was moreover provided that "the whole hundred ... shall be answerable" for the theft or robbery committed, in effect a form of collective punishment.

[1] The hue and cry was utilized in medieval European towns and villages as a means of community policing.

[note 1] It is possible that the term is an Anglicization via Anglo-French of the Latin hutesium et clamor, meaning "a horn and shouting".