Parish Constables did an amazing job in some areas as being local to their own community, they were more trusted than the regular officers who were seen passing through in cars on occasion.
The heads of each household would often select one of their number to take charge of the tithing – an appointment usually known as "chief pledge", except in Kent, Sussex, and parts of Surrey, where the position was called "headborough".
[2] In England and Scotland, the officer in command of the army then came to be called the Lord High Constable, to avoid ambiguity over his role.
As the chief pledge were also involved in policing people's behaviour, though at a much smaller scale, and with much-lowered resources, they gradually came to be referred to as petty constables.
To shift the balance of power away from feudal lords again, magistrates were introduced, and the kings gradually transferred various functions to them, including from the shire courts.
The feudal system had gradually been weakened over the Middle Ages, and by the time of the Reformation, the focus of local administration had shifted away from manors and towards civil parishes.
Traditionally, they were elected by the parishioners (just as the tithing had chosen their chief pledge forebears), but from 1617 onwards were typically appointed by the magistrates in each county.
In accordance with the ancient obligation for tithings to present indicted individuals to the courts, each civil parish typically had a small location in which the constable could confine criminals.
The constable also had general responsibility for the local stocks, as well as for the pillory, and was expected to punish poachers, drunks, hedge-damagers, prostitutes, church-avoiders, and fathers of bastards.
The Parish Constable in the Scotch Corner area of Richmond, North Yorkshire, patrolled seven villages and hamlets by using both private and police vehicles as and when available.
The historian Stephen Inwood describes the 4,000 parish constables existing in the early 19th century as "of variable quality and commitment"; some London parishes, such as Kensington, Fulham and Deptford (with over 55,000 inhabitants between them at the time of the 1821 census) had no policing at all, and the quality of policing was generally considered inadequate by this period.
Their primary tasks are to provide a foot patrol presence and to address problems of public order and minor crimes.
The concluding chapter focuses on the importance of selecting qualified officers for the work, the difficulties that special constables face in defining a role within a community, the perceived policing needs of communities and their reactions to the schemes, and the importance of proper integration between special constables and the rest of their police force.
Parish Special Constables Scheme NCJ Number 157623 Author(s) P Southgate; T Bucke; C Byron Date Published 1995 Length 69 pages