Americas_Criminologist_07_07_2026_Host_DR_Currie_Myers_History_of_American_Law_Enforcement

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Col steals Wight just as a faith.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Shadows secret law.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
The cry the same as gramologist co sales of the
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Speaker 2 (00:35):
And here's America's criminologists, Doctor Curry Myers, your day, my friends.
Welcome to the history of American law enforcement. This is
more than just a story of badges and uniforms and
patrol cars. It's the story of civilization and during search

(00:57):
for justice, the rule of law, and the men and
women who have stood between order and chaos for more
than five thousand years. Doctor Curry Myer's here with you,
and I invite you to join me as we explore
during these episodes the people, ideas, and events that shaped
one of the oldest and most essential institutions of civilized society.

(01:19):
If you've been following our journey, we just started from
the beginning, you may notice that today we are going
to be taking a brief detour from our chronological timeline.
The reason for that is it's the beginning of the
Independence Day week. So we started out on a journey

(01:41):
on ancient foundations of law and order. We're going to
continue next week, starting with Mesopotamia and some of the
first law enforcement that was being done at that time,
that it eventually led to the founding of the United
States and the development of modern American policing. Each fourth
of July we commemorate far more than the signing of

(02:05):
the document in Philadelphia. Of course, this is two hundred
and fifty years of our country in existence now, which
is an amazing thing. And we celebrate the birth of
this great revolutionary idea, an ideas so bold that it
altered the course of history. Proclaimed the legitimate government does
not derive its authority from kings, emperors, hereditary privilege, or

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military conquest. Instead, it was about government existing by the
consent of the governed and remains permanently subject to that
rule of law. The idea transformed politics, it transformed liberty,
and it transformed law enforcement. Most Americans understandably associate Independence

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Day with the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Army, George
Washington crossing the Delaware, or the dramatic victory at Yorktown,
in which my sixth great grandfather, by the way, lost
his life. Those are indispensable chapters of our national story.
Yet remarkably few Americans stopped to ask questions that lies

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at the heart of this series. If America had succeeded
in winning independence, then who would enforce the laws? What
would law enforcement look like in a brand new nation
that rejected monarchy? What officers simply? Would they become servants

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or would they become a new political class? Would they
answer to whichever faction temporarily held power? Would America merely
replace one ruler with another, or could something else entirely
different be created? Those are the answers that do begin

(04:00):
with the first commissioned sheriff under the constitution it became,
It began with the United States. Marshall's office did not
even begin inside the con continent constitutional convention. It started
with ideas before we even got to the law enforcement side.
You see history repeat repeatedly reminds us that enduring institution

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begins first with an idea. Long before stones became cathedrals,
someone imagines them, they build them, they look at them.
Long before constitutions governations, someone argues for its principles. Long
before men and women swear an oath to uphold the constitution,

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someone must first define what the constitution actually means. Now,
this is precisely what happened during one of the most
uncertain moments in American history. The greatest threat to the
survival of the United States did not come from Great
Britain after the Revolution, although they were still there, and

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they came back to Hanus in the War of eighteen twelve, certainly,
but it came from within. The American Revolution had achieved
one of many unbelieved ideas, and against extraordinary odds, thirteen
colonies had defeated the greatest military power on Earth. Independence

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had been won. The Treaty of Paris, signed in seventeen
eighty three, formally recognized the sovereignty of the United States.
Victories should have ushered in stability. Instead, it produced chaos
and uncertainty. The newly independent states found themselves bound together

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under the Articles of Confederation, Americans' first national governing document,
drafting during the Revolutionary War. The Articles reflected a deep
distrust of centralized authority, and rightfully so. Having just fought
a war against what they regarded as the abuses of

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England and Great King George and a parliament, the founders
intentionally created a national government too weak to threaten the
liberty they had just secured, and their caution was understandable,
and unfortunately they overcorrected a bit. You see, the Confederation

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of Congress possessed no independent executive to carry out national policy.
There was no president in the modern sense. It lacked
an effective national judiciary capable of resolving disputes between states.
Congress could request money from the states, but no one
could compel the states to pay. It could negotiate treaties,

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yet lacked the practical means to enforce them. It could
declare war, but it struggled to maintain an army. Most remarkably,
for our discussion today, it possessed little practical authority to
ensure that federal law, such as it existed, would actually
be obeyed. And just imagine attempting to govern nearly four

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million people scattered across thirteen fiercely independent states, without reliable revenue,
without a functioning executive branch, without national courts capable of
resolving conflicts, and without meaningful authority to execute the laws.

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It was government in name far more than in practice,
and the weakness soon became painfully obvious. Individual states actually
imposed tariffs on other indival states as if they were
separate countries. Economic competition replaced natural national cooperation. Foreign governments

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questioned whether the United States would even survive a unified nation,
and creditors lost confidence. Inflation spread, Veterans who had fought
for independence frequently actually went unpaid. Western territories remained unstable.
Public confidence in the national government steadily eroded. That breaking

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point came in western Massachusetts. During the winter of seventeen
eighty six. A former Continental Army captain named Daniel Shays
led thousands of financially desperate farmers in an armed up
uprising against state authorities. Burdened by debt, threatened with foreclosure,
and convinced that government had abandoned them, they attempted to

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shut down the courts and seized an armory in Springfield.
The rebellion was ultimately suppressed, but its political consequences echoed
across continent. Many Americans sought nearly merely a tax revolt,
but something far more dangerous. They saw that terrifying possibility

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that the revolution itself might distend, descend, excuse me into anarchy.
George Washington watched events unfold from Mount Vernon with increasing harm.
Having resigned his military commission in one of the greatest
acts of Republican restraint, Washington hoped never again to enter

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into public life, Yet he privately admitted that the nation
appeared to be a fast verging to anarchy and confusion.
His concern was shared by many of the country's most
influential leaders. Among them was a brilliant, ambitious, young lawyer
from New York named Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton had served beside

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Washington throughout much of the Revolutionary War. As a matter
of fact, another one of my great grandfathers served under Hamilton.
He possessed an extraordinary intellect and equally extraordinary sense of urgency.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Hamilton believed that liberty could

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not survive if government lacked strength to preserve public order.
He feared something many Americans had not yet recognized. The
government can be too powerful, but it also can become
too weak. A weak government cannot protect property, cannot preserve contracts,

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It can't defend borders, it can't maintain public confidence. Most importantly,
for our story, it can enforce the rules of law.
Hamilton understood something that every experienced law enforcement officer today
eventually learns. Good people suffer when laws lose its authority.

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Chaos rarely produces freedom. In fact, it produces fear and
fearful people eventually surrender liberty in exchange for security. That
lesson has repeated itself throughout history, from the collapse of
the Roman Republic to the turmoil of seventeenth century England,

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and indeed to many troubled nations of our own time.
Order and liberties are not enemies. Properly understood, it depends
upon each other. The challenge confronting the Founders was not
choosing between liberty and order. It was discovering how to
preserve both. The question would define the Constitutional Convention of

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seventeen eighty seven, and it would ultimately give birth to
one of the most remarkable collections of political writing ever produced.
The delegates who gathered in Philadelphia in May of seventeen
eighty seven understood that history had presented them with a

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rare opportunity and an enormous responsibility. Officially, they had assembled
the revise the Articles of Confederation. Unofficially, many already knew
the Articles could not simply be repaired. They had to
be replaced. Maining behind closed doors inside what we now

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know as Independence Hall, fifty five delegates from twelve states
debated nearly every aspect of government imaginable. Windows remained closed
despite the oppress of summer heat, and guards stood outside
to preserve secrecy. The delegates understood that frank debate would

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be impossible if every disagreement immediately became public. The men
assembled in that room were hardly uniform in their opinions.
Some favored stronger national authority. Others feared that in any
increase in federal power would recreate the very tyranny that

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they had fought to escape. Large states sought representation based
upon population. Smaller states demanded equal standing. Northern and southern
interests frequently collided. Personal rivalries were common. Compromise was unavoidable.
Yet beneath these disagreements lay a shared recognition that the

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survival of the republic requires something stronger than the government
created under the Articles of Confederation. When the Convention concluded
in September of seventeen eighty seven, the delegates had accomplished
something extraordinary. They had drafted an entirely new constitution. But

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writing the constitution proved to be only the beginning. The
document possessed no authority until it was ratified by the states,
and ratification was anything but certain across the country. Newspapers
erupted with criticism. Opponents, soon known as the anti federalists,

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warned that the proposed constitution created a government far too powerful.
They feared a distant national authority would eventually swallow the
sovereignty of the states. They questioned whether individual liberty could
survive under an energetic federal government. Some even predicted that
the presidency itself would evolve back into an elected monarchy.

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Their concerns were not irrational. Only a few years earlier,
Americans had risked everything to escape concentrated political power. The
memory of British soldiers enforcing unpopular laws of royal governors,
arbitrary and taxation and military occupation remained very fresh in

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the minds of nearly every citizen. The Constitution required a
public defense. No single speech could accomplish that task. No
convention could answer every objection. What American needed was a
sustained conversation, and that conversation began in the newspapers of

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New York City. Beginning in October of seventeen eighty seventy,
series of essays appeared under the pen name Publicists, honoring
the Roman statesman Publicis Valas Publico, remembering one of the
founders of the Roman public. The pseudonym was itself significant.

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The authors deliberately shifted attention from the personal reputation and
towards the strength of their arguments. The question was not
who had written the essays, but whether the reasoning was sound.
Only later Americans learned that the author was actually three

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remarkable men, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. Together
they produced eighty five essays that remain among the greatest
works of political philosophy ever written together, they became known

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as the Federalist Papers, probably the most important documents since
the Constitution. Although written to persuade New Yorkers to ratify
the Constitution, they soon assumed a far greater significance. Today, judges,
constitutional scholars, historians, legislatures, attorneys routinely consult them to understand

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what the framers actually intended when they drafted the Constitution.
For students of American law enforcement, however, the Federalist Papers
revealed something equally profound. They explain why American policing developed
differently than policing anywhere else in the world or in history.

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Before we examine each author individually, it's important to understand
one fundamental truth. The Constitution did not create law enforcement.
Communities had enjoyed constables, sheriffs, night watches, and militias of
militia organizations long before seventeen eighty seven. Colonial America inherited

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many of these institutions directly from English common law. What
the Constitution created was something far more significant. It created
the philosophical framework within which all future American law enforcement
would operate to this day, and that distinction matters. Throughout history.

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The government has always possessed individuals charged with enforcing the rules. Commands.
Ancient Egypt and royal officials. Imperial Rome employed urban cohorts
and vigils. Medieval kingdoms relied upon sheriffs, bailiffs, and constables.
Absolute monarchies developed increasingly sophisticated police organizations. The existence of

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officers was never the revolutionary idea. The revolutionary idea was
that those officers themselves would be permanently subject to the
Constitution and not a ruler. What principle remains so famire
today that we sometimes overlook how extraordinary is truly was.

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An American police officer possesses lawful authority to arrest, search,
seize evidence, employ force when necessary. And deprive an individual
of liberty through due process. These are among the greatest
powers a democratic society can confer upon any public servant.

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Yet from the beginning those powers were deliberately limited. The
badge would never stand above Jay Alexander Hamilton approached government
with unusual realism. Born in the Caribbean under circumstances that
remain partially uncertain, Hamilton experienced poverty, instability, and insecurity during

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his youth. Those experiences profoundly shaped his political philosophy, and
he admired deeply liberty. He also understood that liberty without
effective government quickly degenerates into disorder. Just look at France.
Hamilton was not fascinated by power for its own sake.

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He was fascinated by competent government. Reading Hamilton today, one
cannot escape the impression that he would have appreciated the
frustrations familiar to every modern day police, chief, sheriff, or
public administrator. Rules without enforcement accomplished. Little authority without capability

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invites failure. Good intentions cannot substitute for institutional effectiveness. Hamilton
understood good that government carries a practical responsibility. It must
defend the nation, It must administer justice. It must protect commerce,
it must preserve domestic tranquility. Those responsibilities require authority. In

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Federalist Number twenty three, Hamilton addressed this reality with remarkable clarity.
Discussing the powers necessary for the common defense, he argued
that the means entrusted to the government ought to exist
without limitation, because it is impossible to foresee or define

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the extent the verity of national external circumstances. Now, at
first that sentence can sound alarming to modern ears, Yet
Hamilton was not arguing that government should possess power unlimited
power over its citizens. Rather, he argued that when the

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Constitution assigns a legitimate responsibility to government, it must also
provide sufficient authority to fulfill that responsibility. Effectively, a government
charged with protecting the nation, but denied the tools necessary
to go do it is not a safeguard for liberty.

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It's merely an illusion, and Hamilton returned repeatedly to this
theme throughout the Federalist papers. Federalists Number fifteen, he warned
against governments that rely solely upon voluntary compliance. Laws, he argued,
cannot remain mere recommendations. A republic worthy of the name

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must possess the practical ability to execute its laws. For
those of us who have spent our careers in law enforcement,
Hamilton's observation possess a timely quality. Legislature may pass criminal statutes,
Judges may interpret them, Prosecutors may seek justice. But unless

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there exists a lawful mechanism to investigate crime, execute warrants,
arrest offenders, protect witnesses, and maintain public order, the rule
of law becomes little more than an aspiration. And Hamilton
recognized a principle that every experienced police officer today eventually

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comes to appreciate. Justice requires institutions capable of carrying it
into effect. At the same time, Hamilton understood that power
without accountability threatens liberty. This is where many modern portrayals
of Hamilton become incomplete. He has sometimes been caricatured, characterized

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as faith favoring unlimited central authority, and that's not the case.
In fact, the Federal's papers reveal something far more nuanced.
Hamilton sought an energetic government, not an arbitrary one. Government
power enough to preserve order, a government constrained enough to

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preserve freedom. That balance remains one of the defining characters
of American constitutional policing today. Every lawful arrest reflects governmental authority,
every search warrant reflects constitutional restraint, every use of force
review reflects accountability. Every criminal trial reflects due process. Hamilton

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would have recognized all of these not as contradictions, but
as evidence that a constitutional government is functioning exactly as
it should now. If Hamilton one supplied the Constitution with energy,
James Madison supplied it with restraint. Together, they formed one

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of the greatest intellectual partnerships in American history. Madison was
not physically imposing. Standing barely over five feet tall, often
plagued by illness, and soft spoken by nature, he possessed
none of Hamilton's theatrics personality. Yet what Madison lacked in

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physical presence he more than compensated for with extraordinary intellectual depth.
Years of studying history, philosophy, classical government, and political theory
had convinced him that free societies rarely collapse because of
a foreign evasion alone. More often, they destroyed themselves from within.

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He understood something that every student of history eventually discovers.
Human nature never changes. Technology changes, weapons changes, governments change,
uniforms change, but human ambition, pride, fear, greed, jealousy, vengeance,

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and the desire for power remained remarkably constant throughout history,
and that observation became the starting point for Madison's political philosophy.
Unlike some Enlightenment thinkers who believe that education alone would
perfect mankind, Madison viewed humanity through a far more realistic lens.

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He believed men were capable of extraordinary virtue, but he
also knew they were capable of extraordinary corruption. Consequently, government
had to be designed with both realities and mind. His
most famous explanation appears in Federalist Number fifty one, perhaps
the single most quoted essay in American constitutional history. Madison wrote,

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if men were angels, no government would be necessary. If
angels were to govern men, neither external or internal controls
on government would be necessary. How true, and only two sentences,
Manison summarized one of the deepest truths ever written about government.

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Government exists because human beings are imperfect. Crime exists because
human beings are imperfect, Conflict exists because human beings are imperfect,
and law enforcement exists because human beings are imperfect. If
every person respected life, property and contracts, and the dignity

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of others, there would be no need for police officers, prosecutors, judges,
or criminal courts. Civilization itself would function without coercive authority.
If Madison knew, such a world has never existed and
never will Why because God has given us free will.

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Yet he immediately added another equally important truth. Those entrusted
with governmental authority are also imperfect. Police officers are human.
Sheriffs are human, Governors are human, Presidents are human. Judges

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are human. Every public servant carries the same human strength
and weaknesses found throughout society. Therefore, Madison concluded government itself
must be restrained. Now, this insight fundamentally distinguishes American constance

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titutional government from nearly every form of government that preceded it.
Throughout much of history, rulers assumed that the problem always
lay with the people. Madison argued that government itself could
become the problem. That single insight forever changed the relationship

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between citizens and those entrusted to enforce the law. As
someone who spent nearly a quarter century in law enforcement
as a state trooper, special agent, and sheriff, I often
reflect on Madison's wisdom. Most officers enter this profession for

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honorable reasons. They generally want to help people. They willingly
place themselves in danger for complete strangers. They routinely miss holidays, birthdays,
family gatherings because someone else's emergency requires immediate ada attention.
I have also witnessed acts of courage that the public

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will never know. I've also learned another lesson. No profession
is immune from human weakness. The overwhelming majority of officers
serve honorably, but a very small number abuse the authority
entrusted to them, and the founding fathers anticipated that very reality.

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That is precisely why they created constitutional limitations. Rather than
relying solely upon the good intentions of public officials. The
Constitution assumes that character matters. It also assumes that institutions matter.
Character without accountability invites abuse. Accountability without character becomes just bureaucracy.

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Healthy constitutional governments require both, and that principle remains as
relevant today as it did in seventeen eighty eight. Madison
expanded his reasoning in Federalist Number ten, where he addressed
another enduring challenge facing every free society faction Today. We

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often think of faction simply as political parties. Madison meant
something very much broader. A faction is an organized group
of people united by common interests or passions, that become
willing to sacrifice the rights of others in pursuit of
their own objectives. History is filled with such factions. There

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could be religious factions, economic factions, political factions, regional factions,
ideological factions. Sometimes they seek noble goals, sometimes destructive ones.
But Madison warned that no society could eliminate factors entirely
without destroying liberty itself. Freedom allows people to disagree, Freedom

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allows competing interests, freedom allows passionate debate. The challenge, therefore,
was not eliminating disagreement. The challenge was preventing any single
faction from capturing the machinery of government. And why does
this matter for law enforcement? Because constitutional policing cannot become

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an instrument of political factions. The law must remain above politics.
An officer cannot selectively enforce criminal statutes based on political preference.
Sheriff cannot suspend constitutional rights because public opinion temporarily demands it.

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Federal agents cannot investigate individuals because they belong to an
unpopular group. Likewise, prosecutors can either nor criminal conduct simply
because offenders happen to support preferred political causes. The Constitution,
ladies and gentlemen, requires equal justice under the law, not

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equal justice under politics. That principle traces directly back to
Madison's understanding of faction. When officers swear to uphold the Constitution,
they implicitly swear to resisting. Because instruments of temporary political
passions exist, the obligations have never been more important than today.

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Madison also provided another concept that remains central to American policing,
and that's the separation of powers, which nobody else has
in the world like we do. This idea seems almost
to us as Americans. Legislatures write the laws, executives enforce

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the laws, and courts interpret the laws. Yet this division
represented a revolutionary departure from many governments throughout history. Under
absolute monarchies, the king frequently exercised all three powers simultaneously.
He could create laws, he could interpret them, he could

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enforce them, he could punish violators. No independent institution stood
between government authority and the individual citizen. The Constitution rejected
that model entirely, and Congress enacts criminal statutes. The executive
branch investigates violations. Independent courts determined guilt or innocence, juries

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drawn from ordinary citizens participate in the process. Each institution
limits the other. Each serves as a safeguard against concentrated power.
Law enforcement officers therefore, occupy a unique constitutional position. They're
not legislatures. They're not judges. The responsibility is neither to

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create law or determine guilt. Their responsibility is to investigate
facts objectively, protect constitutional rights, and preserve public order, and
present evidence fairly within the judicial process. Now, this distinction
is one of the most defining characteristics of American professional policing.

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Officers enforce the law, they do not become the law.
Closely connected, separation of powers is another constitutional principle that
profoundly shaped American law enforcement. And that's the rule of law.
The phrase is frequently repeated, it deserves meaning and careful reflection.

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The rule of law means that laws govern everyone, not
merely citizens, but everyone. No individual stands above the constitution.
Not the President of the United States, not a senator,
not a member of Congress, not governors, not judges, not sheriffs,
not police chiefs, not federal agents, nor prosecutors, not wealthy

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citizens or influential citizens. Not popular citizens or unpopular citizens.
The authority exists by every law enforcement officer, exists because
the constitution authorizes and allows it. The moment public officials
begin placing themselves above the law, constitutional government begins to erode,

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and history repeatedly confirms this truth. Governments rarely collapse overnight,
but they do gradually abandon the principle that law applies
equally to everyone, and American founders understood that danger. Consequently,

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they insisted that governmental authority remain permanently subordinate to constitutional law.
That conviction would eventually become the defining characteristics of American policing.
You see, an officer's badge does not grant personal privilege
and represents public trust. Firearm does not symbol domination. It

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symbolizes lawful responsibility. An oath that does not elevate an
officer above fellow citizens, but it does bind that officer
more closely to constitutional obligations that the average citizen will
ever experience. Perhaps that is the greatest legacy of James Madison.

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He reminded future generations that government must possess sufficient strength
to preserve liberty while remaining sufficiently restrained to avoid destroying it.
That balance is not merely a constitutional theory. It's the
daily responsibility of every honorable law enforcement officer in America today. Now,

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while Alexander Hamilton supplied the Constitution with energy and James
Madison supplied it with restraint, John Jay reminded Americans while
preserving the Union itself was indispensable. You see, Jay authored
fewer essays than his two colleagues, but their importance should

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not be underestimated. A distinguished diplomat himself and future Chief
Justice of the United States and one of the nation's
most respected public servants, Jay understood that the Constitution was
not merely creating another government. It was actually preserving the
very existence of the United States of America. Writing in

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Federalists Number two, Jay appealed to something larger than political theory.
He appealed to national identity. He reminded his readers that
Providence had blessed the American people with a common heritage,
common principles, and a common struggle for independence. Geography and language, religion, commerce,

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and sacrifice had bound the states together. To abandon that
union would invite foreign influence, would cause internal conflict, economics, instability,
and ultimately the loss of liberty that they so recently
won on the battlefield. Jay understood a lesson that history

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has confirmed repeatedly. Liberty cannot flourish without perpetual disorder, or
excuse me, liberty cannot flourish amid perpetual disorder. A nation
constantly divided against herself cannot long preserve either freedom or justice.

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The Constitution therefore, sought not merely to create power, but
to create stability, and that observation brings us back to
law enforcement. Every law enforcement officer serves with a particular
jurisdiction a city, a county, a state, or the federal government.

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Yet every one of those jurisdictions exists with a constitutional
republic whose survival depends upon maintaining order under the rule
of law. Without domestic tranquility, the liberties guaranteed by the
Constitution become increased difficult to exercise. The founders recognize this reality,

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and the very opening words of the Constitution itself, we
the people of the United States, in order to form
a more perfect union, established justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide
for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure
the blessings of liberty. Notice the order it means something.

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Before speaking of prosperity or even liberty, the Constitution first
speaks of justice and domestic tranquility. These words are not accidental.
Justice requires laws, domestic tranquility requires the peaceful enforcement of
those laws. From the very beginning, the Constitution acknowledged that

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liberty depends upon an ordered society. This is one of
the greatest misconceptions of our own age. Too often, order
and liberty are portrayed as opposing forces, as though every
effort to preserve public safety somehow diminishes freedom. That's bonkers.

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The founders rejected that false choice. They understood that genuine
liberty cannot exist where violence, intimidation, lawlessness, or even fear
dominate every life. My friends, an elderly couple cannot enjoy
liberty if violent criminals control their neighborhoods. A small business

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owner cannot exercise economic freedom if organized theft forces the
doors to close. Parents cannot truly enjoy their constanable constitutional
rights if their children are unsafe walking back and forth
to school. Freedom requires security requires justice. Justice requires institutions

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capable of enforcing the law while remaining accountable to the
United States Constitution. And that my friends is uniquely American
in its balance. Now, when we step back from the
federal federalist papers as a whole, for and during, principles

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emerged that continue to define American law enforcement now for
early two and a half centuries later. The first, as
government derives its authority from the people. Throughout history, most
police organizations answered upward to kings, emperors, dictators, or ruling elites.

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American law enforcement answers both upward and outward, upward to
the Constitution and outward to the citizens for whom they
have the authority granted to them. This understanding explains why
American police officers describe themselves as public servants. The phrase
is not merely rhetoric. It reflects constitutional reality. The authority

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to make an arrest, execute a warrant, or use lawful
force is not personal. It is temporarily entrusted to an
individual by the power through the Constitution and the laws
enacted under it. Such authority must therefore be exercised with humility. Second,

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the rule of law governs everyone. One of the most
distinguishing features of a constitutional government is that no individual
occupies a position above the law. The principle allies equally
to ordinary citizens, as it should do to public officials.

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When officers investigate allegations involving political leaders or wealthy business executives,
or celebrities or fellow officers, the constitutional principle remains unchanged.
The law applies equally conversion. Constitutional governments also protect unpopular

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ideas in individuals from arbitrary government action. The Constitution exists
precisely because rights become most vulnerable when public opinion grows emotional.
Professional law enforcement requires the discipline to enforce the laws
fairly and partially, and without favoritism. Third, government power is

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intentionally divided. Unlike any other nation. We do this. The
Constitution refuses to concentrate authority in any single institution. It
requires a legislature to write the laws, requires executives to
enforce the laws. It requires judges to interpret the laws.

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It requires juries to determine the facts. It requires prosecutors
independent to prosecute the cases. Law enforcement officers investigate objectively
and carry out lawful orders within constitutional boundaries. This division
protects liberty because no single institution controls the entire process.

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Checks and balances are not obstacles to justice. They are
safeguards against tyranny. And finally, liberty and order are partners
rather than adversaries. Perhaps no misconception has caused greater confusion

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in modern public debate today than the suggestion that Americans
must choose between freedom and effective law enforcement. The founders
never accepted such a choice. In fact, Hamilton warned against
governmental weakness, Madison warned against governmental excess, Jay warned against

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national disunity. Together, they propose something extraordinary, a government strong
enough to preserve order, limited enough to preserve liberty, and
accountable enough to deserve the trust of a free people.
That remains the constitutional idea. No generation has achieved it perfectly,

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No generation has struggled to preserve it. Every excuse me,
every generation has struggled to preserve it, and every generation
has benefited from it. As I reflect on my own career,

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I find myself returning repeatedly to one simple but profound truth.
Every officer remembers the day they first raised a right
hand and took the oath of office. Whether administered in
a courthouse, a police academy, a sheriff's office, or beneath
the American flag, that ceremony makes the beginning of a

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solemn public trust. Yet, consider carefully what officers actually swear.
They do not swear loyalty to a mayor or a governor,
or president or political party. Instead, they pledged to support

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and defend the Constitution of the United States, the distinction
among the most remarkable features of the American government. The
Constitution is not merely another legal document. It is the
supreme expression of American understanding that law stands above rulers.

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Every oath taken by an American law enforcement officer traces
its intellectual ancestry back to the ideas defended by Hamilton,
Madison and j Most officers understandably never think about the
Federalist Papers while responding to a burglary, or investigating a homicide,

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or conducting the traffic stop. Yet those essays remain present
in every law enforcement decision they make. Whenever an officer
seeks a warrant rather than entering the home unlawfully, Whenever
probable cause is required before making an arrest, whenever a
suspect receives due process, whenever evidence is included or excluded

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because of constitutional protections, whether government power yields to individual rights.
The principles first defended by the Federalist Papers continue to live,
and these papers are not relics of the eighteenth century.
They are like the Constitution, living documents and guides for

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constitutional authority, My friends, as fireworks illuminate the skies this week,
and Americans celebrate the courage of those who declared independence
in seventeen seventy six, two hundred and fifty years later,
and that celebration is entirely appropriate and valued. But perhaps

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we should also remember that those who preserved the independence
through wisdom rather than warfare or political power. Soldiers won
the revolution, The Framers secured the Republic. Hamilton, Madison and
Jay gave the Republic an intellectual foundation strong enough to

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endure civil war, economic depression, social upheaval, world wars, terrorism,
and countless political disagreements. Their greatest achievement was not merely
creating a government. It was creating a constitutional government in
which law would stand above power. And for those of

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us who have worn the badge, that inheritance carries profound meaning.
Every honorable officer becomes a temporary steward of an idea
much older than any police department, an idea that a
authority exists to protect liberty, that justice must always remain

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accountable to law, that public trust is earned through integrity,
and that no one, not even those entrusted with enforcing
the law, stands above the Constitution. This is the true
legacy of the Federalist papers, and it is the foundation
upon which American law enforcement was built. In our next episode,

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we moved from philosophy to practice. Constitution has been ratified,
George Washington has taken the oath of office as president.
The First Congress now faces a practical question that no
government can avoid. Who will actually enforce the laws of
the new Republic. Who were the first American law enforcement officers?

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Why was the United States Marshal Service among the very
first institutions created under the Constitution. How did customs collectors,
revenue officers, inspectors, and marshals become the first guardians of
constitutional government. Those are the stories we'll be exploring next
time as we continue our journey through the history of

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law enforcement. So until next time, remember that the history
of American law enforcement is the story of civilizations and
enduring pursuit of justice under the rule of law. I'm
doctor Curry Myers, America's criminologist. Thank you for joining me
on our journey through the American law enforcement system have

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a great day and God bless America.