Excerpts from the Hillsdale County
Sheriff's
Office 2008 Annual Review booklet:
Without a doubt, we
are blessed with a well-trained, highly
respected and community-oriented staff
who together protect and defend the
freedoms we all so richly enjoy.
We wear the brown uniform with pride and
distinction serving the residents of
Hillsdale County, enforcing the laws of
the State of Michigan while supporting
and defending the Constitution of the
United States of America which is the
basis of our freedom. The
Office of Sheriff has a long tradition
of honor and service which spans well
over a thousand years. With a few
exceptions, the Office of Sheriff is an
elected position which serves as the
chief law enforcement officer for a
county. Although the duties of the
Sheriff vary from jurisdiction to
jurisdiction, the office remains similar
in their involvement in all three
branches of the criminal justice system
which is comprised of law enforcement,
the courts and corrections.
More than twelve hundred years ago, the country we now
call England was inhabited by small
groups of Anglo-Saxons who lived in
rural communities called tuns.
Tun is the source of the modern English
word town. These
Anglo-Saxons were often at war, and great calamity was ever-present.
Sometime before the year 700, they decided to systemize their methods of
fighting by forming a system of local self-government based on groups of ten.
Eventually a new unit
of government, the shire, was formed
when groups of hundreds banded together.
The shire was the forerunner of the
modern county. Just as each
hundred was led by a reeve (chief), each
shire had a reeve as well. To
distinguish the leader of a shire the
leader of a mere hundred, the more
powerful official became known as the
shire-reeve.
The term shire-reeve eventually became the modern
English word Sheriff. The Sheriff in early England -- and, metaphorically,
in present day America -- is the keeper, or chief, of the county. If a criminal or
escaped suspect was at large, it was the
Sheriff's responsibility to give the
alarm; the hue and cry, as it
was called. Any member of the community who heard the hue and cry was then
legally responsible for helping to bring the criminal to justice. Over the
next few centuries, the Sheriff remained the leading law enforcement officer of
the county. To be appointed Sheriff was considered a significant honor.
Throughout
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,
American sheriffs were assigned a broad
range of responsibilities by colonial
and state legislatures. Some of
these responsibilities, such as law
enforcement and tax collection, were
carried over from the familiar role of
the English Sheriff. Other
responsibilities, such as overseeing
jails and workhouses, were new. As
Americans began to move westward, they
took with them the concept of county
jails and the office of Sheriff.
Today the Office of Sheriff not only embodies this rich
history but also finds a mandate within
the Michigan Constitution which requires
that there SHALL BE a Sheriff.
Equally, the Sheriff is required by
Michigan statute to appoint an Undersheriff
to ensure this office continually
strives to meet and exceed state and
federal training standards, remain
technologically advanced, well versed in
legislative changes and equipped with
the tools necessary to carry out the
full function of law enforcement
responsibilities.
Please view our many divisions established by Sheriff
Burchardt to provide quality law
enforcement services in Hillsdale
County! |
