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When the
first sheriff took his oath to protect the lives and property of his fellow citizens
cannot precisely be determined. Some historians trace the origins of the office back to
the ancient Roman pro-consul. The Old Testament in the Bible mentions the sheriff in the
Book of Daniel in the account of Nebuchadnezzar setting up a golden image in Babylon. Down
through history the sheriff has become one of the most familiar and indispensable
institutions in the history of government. The office of sheriff holds a special
significance for English-speaking people. Of all the offices in English government, only
the office of king is older and has greater dignity. Changes have occurred in the
function, status and power of the office but the office has maintained its existence and
unique characteristics for almost nine centuries. In this long history, many duties have
been performed by the sheriff both as an agent of the monarchy and as a constitutional
officer of great importance.
The office of
sheriff, as known today in the United States, traces its beginnings, powers, and
responsibilities to historical England. In fact, the basic powers and responsibilities
exercised by sheriffs today are the same as those exercised by a sheriff at English common
law. This makes the common law interpretations of the office of sheriff very important in
defining its role and duties in the United States. The office of sheriff is usually a
constitutionally established office. Our state constitutions were written with the
understanding that the common law and other previous historical practices should be used
to interpret the constitutional provisions referring to the office of sheriff. An example
of one problem which may arise is where the sheriff is made responsible to carry out law
enforcement duties with no specific constitutional or statutory authority setting out his
duties. In such a case, the courts have held that since the sheriff is a constitutionally
established officer, he is vested with those responsibilities which come from the common
law tradition. This gives the sheriff the same powers and duties which where imposed on by
common law.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE
OFFICE IN ENGLAND
The term
"sheriff" comes from the Anglo-Saxon terms "shire," or county, and
"reeve," or keeper. The shire-reeve or sheriff was the "keeper of the
county" which he remains today.
It was during the
reign of Alfred the Great (871 A. D. -900 A. D.) that England was first divided into the
geographical districts known as shires. A shire is roughly equivalent to our county. Local
governments were set up on the basis of tithings. A tithing was an area in which ten
families lived. Ten tithings were known as a "hundred." Each hundred had a
headman called a "reeve." Several hundreds were combined to form a shire. In
order to maintain law and order in the shires, the king appointed a
"shire-reeve" to act in his behalf. This shire-reeve acted as both judge and
chief law enforcement officer for the shire. This dual responsibility made the sheriff a
very powerful military as well as judicial official.
There were
several reasons for the power and prominence of the sheriff, foremost of which was the
link he provided between the central government in London and the local regions. From the
very first, the sheriff was always a leading man in the shire. He understood local affairs
and knew the people who lived in the community. As a royal servant appointed by the king
and responsible to him alone, the sheriff became the king's main representative and
administrative officer in the shire. He had command of the local militia units and often
presided over the local shire court with the bishop in the absence of the earl. As the
agent of the king, he was responsible for the execution of justice in the shire, carrying
out the king's commands, and watching the royal interests. He collected the kings share of
court fines and fees and all other revenues due the crown. He supervised the lands and
buildings of the crown and kept the king in touch with local affairs.
When the
Norman’s invaded England in 1066, they retained many of the Anglo-Saxon traditions
and techniques with some modifications. The Norman system of government combined past and
present offices and institutions into a workable arrangement. This is very graphically
shown with the Norman sheriff. The Norman kings had some of the same problems as the
Anglo-Saxon kings and needed a link between the central government and the local
authorities. They kept the office of sheriff and, for a while, left his traditional powers
unaffected. The local power was still concentrated in the sheriff and the sheriff remained
the main contact with the king and central government. For these reasons, outstanding
nobles in the shires were appointed to be sheriff and be supporting pillars of the state.
Each sheriff was
required to pay to the king's treasury an annual rental fee called the sheriff's
"farm." This fee was collected from the regular royal revenue and from the
penalties imposed by the local hundred and shire courts. If the sheriff was diligent and
collected the monies due, he was permitted to keep everything he collected in excess of
his rental fee as his salary and profit. As a result, there were many abuses of the power
given the sheriffs to collect monies. Royal justices were ordered to keep an eye on the
sheriffs and report to the king any suspicious activities.
A sheriff had
many other tasks in addition to collecting revenue and presiding over the local courts. He
usually had official custody of the royal castles in his shire and responsibility for the
prisons. In time of war, he commanded the militia; and, in time of peace, he arrested
criminals. He gave hospitality to royal guests who visited his shire and was required to
serve the royal orders, called writs, and sent out from the Exchequer (Department of
Treasury) to debtors. In later days, this indispensable agent also served the judicial
writs sent out from the central courts and collected juries for the sessions of court.
DEVELOPMENT
OF OFFICE IN THE UNITED STATES
When
America was being settled, the colonist brought with them many of their old institutions,
including their systems of law enforcement. The environment here in the New World forced
them to modify their preexisting customs. However, in England and all the American states,
the system of ministerial offices, including the sheriff, still remains essentially as it
was in the earliest days
of English jurisprudence.
The office of
sheriff came to Virginia in 1634 when that colony was divided into eight shires to be
governed in the manner of the English shires by a sheriff who had the same powers as in
England. Maryland was settled by gentlemen adventurers who wanted to recreate the England
they knew in the New World. Their government was based on the old English hundred as the
key local unit. The Chesapeake Sheriff was the same as the English sheriff with only minor
modifications. Within his county, he was the highest-ranking law enforcement and financial
officer. He served warrants and made arrests; he collected taxes, ministers' dues, and
fees owed the governor. As a salary, he received ten percent of all he collected. The
first sheriffs were chosen by the county court from among three men recommended by the
governor. By 1645, they were chosen from the eight members of the county court for an
annual term, with a new member being appointed each year. These appointments served as
financial rewards for magistrates who did not receive a salary. Each county held a monthly
court staffed by court commissioners (later called justices of the peace). Officers of the
court included sheriffs, constables, clerks and coroners.
In the United
States, as it was a thousand years ago in England, the sheriff is the chief executive
officer of the county with the same powers and same liabilities as his predecessors from
the days of King Alfred. According to Lord Coke, a great legal scholar, the sheriff has a
threefold duty:
No suit begins
and no process is served but by the sheriff. He must also return impartial juries for the
trial of men's lives, liberties, lands, goods, etc.
He is to make
execution which is the life and fruit of the law.
He is the
principal conservator of peace within the county.
These words
impose upon a sheriff duties of a very comprehensive character and of the greatest
importance. The powers given to him by law must therefore enable him to carry out the
grave interests committed to his charge. In most jurisdictions, it is not only the power,
but the duty, of sheriffs to preserve the peace, to enforce the laws, to arrest and commit
to jail felons and other violators of the statutory or common law, to execute all
processes directed to him, to attend the trial courts of record, to preserve peace and
quiet, and to execute and carry out the mandates, orders and directions of the court. The
sheriff represents the sovereignty of the state and has no superior in his county in
exercising executive and administrative functions, conserving the public peace,
vindicating the law, and preserving the rights of government. When a situation arises, it
is the sheriff's right and his duty to determine what the public safety and tranquility
demand, and to act accordingly under the law. To carry out this duty, he possesses a power
unique to sheriffs, that of posse comitatus. As explained in American Jurisprudence:
"As
a general rule, the sheriff may summon to his assistance any person when he deems it
necessary to effect an arrest. For the purpose of performing his duty to arrest offenders
and commit them to custody, he may command all of the male population of his county to
attend him, in other words, the posse comitatus or power of the county."
The sheriff's
authority to summon a posse is explicitly defined in statutes of at least nineteen states
and in one state constitution. Under the common law tradition, this power would probably
be held to exist in all states in which the sheriff is a constitutional officer, including
North Carolina. The sheriff's responsibility to conserve the peace at common law was
considered to include not only the arrests of violators but also their detention and
trial. The sheriff's present responsibilities as jailer and operator of the local jails
come from his duty as conservator of the peace at common law. He must keep securely in
confinement all prisoners who are committed to his charge by civil or criminal process
issuing from courts of adequate jurisdiction. In North Carolina, the sheriff's jail
responsibilities are limited to pretrial and short sentence detention only.
In all forty-nine
states in which the office of sheriff exists (Alaska does not have sheriffs), the sheriff
is responsible for performing court related functions. These functions include acting as
court bailiff; attending court sessions; serving summonses, warrants, or various civil
processes; and enforcing money decrees such as those relating to garnishment and the sale
of property.
THE
SHERIFF IN NORTH CAROLINA
The office
of the sheriff has been a very important part of the society, economy, and polity of North
Carolina for many years. The State Constitution of 1776 provided for a sheriff in each
county within the state. The office of sheriff has been part of the government of North
Carolina from the very beginnings in one form or another. In the very early days of the
colony of North Carolina, there was a continual antagonism between the ruling class
(legislature) and the officials of the crown (royal governors, etc.). The county court of
the justices of peace and the court officials strongly supported the colonist in this
struggle. One of the most important to these local officials was the sheriff. He exercised
a great deal of influence and power in the colony, In fact, probably no other officer in
the colony exercised such complete and absolute executive and administrative powers as the
sheriff did. He was not only the executive officer of the county court but he was also the
representative of the crown in the county just as the English sheriff was in England. The
full power of posse comitatus was his as peace officer of the county. He was also a very
important fiscal officer as the collector of taxes for the colony, the county, and the
parish. He was responsible for holding the elections of members of the legislature and the
local vestries and, through this, exercised a great influence over elections and the
legislature. In most counties, he acted as vendee master (conducting public sales) and
possessed important powers in connection with that office. All of these powers made the
sheriff a position of great importance and one highly sought after and prized in colonial
North Carolina.
North Carolina
began as a private colony granted by the king to eight of his friends and supporters who
came to be called Lord Proprietors. Under the Fundamental Constitutions set up by the
Eight Lord Proprietors, the sheriff was head of the county court and served along with
four justices, one from each of the four precincts in the county. In the county court, the
sheriff possessed judicial powers and presided over the sessions as chief judge. However,
the actual nature of the government in North Carolina is rather vague since the records
for the seventeenth century are rather meager and a number of the institutions set out in
the Fundamental Constitutions were never established. The acts of the Albemarle Assembly
which were ratified in January, 1669-70, refer only to provincial officials. No mention is
made of lower courts. The governor and his council exercised both judicial and executive
power and the sheriff acted as their executive officer when they sat as a court.
In 1694, the
office of county sheriff was discontinued and the office of provost Marshall was
introduced. The Marshall and his deputies were assigned the responsibility for executing
the orders of the General Court and of precinct courts. Even though the office of sheriff
did not reappear until 1739, the term continued to appear in legislation when laws of the
pre-1694 period were reenacted. From 1694 to 1739, the provost Marshall was responsible to
the precinct courts for performing the duties which the sheriff later acquired. The duties
of the provost Marshall were not confined to a single precinct but covered several
precincts, which made it necessary to appoint a deputy to serve in each of the precincts.
In 1738-39, the county court secured some control over the appointment of its executive
officer with the reestablishment of the office of sheriff. Each court was given their
right to nominate three men from whom the governor would appoint one as sheriff. The
sheriffs were to execute the orders of their respective county courts and also to serve as
officers of the higher courts, collectors of all taxes, and as supervisors of the
elections. This made the sheriffs officers of the province and of their counties, a dual
role.
The sheriff had a
very active role as the executive officer of the court. He and his crier opened the court
with a call for silence and attention and then called each action as it appeared on the
docket. He submitted the names of the men summoned for service on the grand and petit
juries when ordered to do so. In criminal actions, he had in his custody or under bond the
defendants in the actions and suits before the court. If the defendant was in his custody
or in jail, he brought them before the court at the proper time to answer, as the case
required. The sheriff summoned the witnesses for the cases pending prior to the opening of
court. During and after the court session, the sheriff served the court's orders and
writs, levied executions, proclaimed acquittals and supervised the infliction of
punishments: the stocks and pillory, whippings, brandings, cropping of ears, and hanging
of slaves.
THE OFFICE OF SHERIFF
Originally
there were three constitutionally established public officers of a law enforcement nature:
coroner, township constable and sheriff. Of these three, only the office of sheriff
remains as a constitutionally established public office. This means that the office cannot
be abolished except by amendment to the Constitution, although the General Assembly may
from time to time change the duties and responsibilities of the office. There are one
hundred counties in this state and each county has a sheriff who is elected for a
four-year term.
The Chief Law
Enforcement Officer of Dare County.
Elected by the
people to provide services to the citizens as required by the North Carolina Constitution,
North Carolina General Statutes and Common Law.
The Executive
officer of the Dare County Sheriff's Office.
Utilizes the
full resources of the Sheriff's Office to provide maximum service.
DUTIES OF THE SHERIFF
Although the office of
sheriff is a constitutionally established office in North Carolina, the
powers and duties of the office remain much as they were at common law.
In fact, the Constitution of North Carolina gives no guidelines on the
duties of the sheriff but merely provides that each county shall have a
sheriff elected by the people for a term of four years.
The general duties of
the sheriff in North Carolina today are outlined in the North Carolina
General Statutes, Chapter 162 and particularly in N.C. General Statute
162-13 to 162-25.
QUALIFICATIONS FOR OFFICE
Any man or
woman who desires to run for the office of sheriff must be a qualified voter who meets the
other requirements set out in the North Carolina Constitution and statutes. The basic
qualifications required of a person seeking the office of sheriff are:
- Be a citizen of the United States,
- Be at least 21 years of age,
- Be of sound mind,
- Be literate,
- Be a resident of North Carolina for at least one year.
- Be a resident of the county in which he seeks office for at least
one year, and
- Be a resident of the election ward or precinct for at least 30
days.
DEPUTY SHERIFFS
The office
of deputy sheriff is a common law office. Until 1983, neither the constitution nor the
statutes of North Carolina provided authority for the appointment of deputy sheriffs by
the sheriff. Now North Carolina Statute 162-24 provides that a sheriff may appoint a
deputy or other person to assist him in the performance of his duties. A deputy is
considered to be appointed rather than employed by the sheriff. The terms
"employee" and "agent" have both been mentioned in trying to determine
the status of the deputy, but his actual status is considered to be neither of these. The
cases have held that the term’s employee and agent should only be applied to a deputy
for purposes of deciding whether or not the sheriff is to be liable for the acts or
omissions of the deputy. The term deputy itself implies the existence of a principal for
whom the deputy acts. As a deputy, he does not act independently in his own name, but
instead he performs all official acts in the name of his principal. When he acts as deputy
for and in the name of his principal, the law recognizes his acts as being the acts of the
principal just as if the principal had performed them in person. He is the alter ego of
the sheriff. The sheriff is responsible in every case for the acts of his deputies done
within the scope of their authority. The sheriff is liable for neglect or failure on the
part of a deputy in executing process delivered to him. The sheriff is also liable for
injury done to third persons by the wrongful act of a deputy under color of his office.
Under the common law doctrine of deputization, it is necessary only that the deputy
sheriff act with the consent and the same legal duty as the sheriff for his acts to become
acts of the sheriff. Because of the nature of his appointment, a deputy serves at the
pleasure of the sheriff who appoints him and may be removed by the sheriff at any time for
any good reason.
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The Office of the Sheriff is truly unique in
the criminal justice community. In the United States, he is usually an elected official
responsible for the law enforcement, corrections, court security, transportation of
prisoners and the service of civil and criminal processes in the county. He is a
ministerial officer with delegated executive authority to carry out his duties. His
responsibilities may vary from state to state but, generally, he is an active participant
in all three branches of the criminal justice system:
Policing