hi! you'll find links to a few posts on policing in a few ancient societies in here

• When did the institution of a police force begin? Was there ever a society that used the public as the police?

Also, while I was hunting that down, I ran into a few more recent posts on policing, so for anyone with an interest in other time periods, here they are

• Police work and criminal investigations in the Middle Ages (1,000 A.D. - 1500 A.D.) in Europe. Who was 'the police' in this time period? Did they only investigate crimes against 'important' people, or did they bother to investigate the murder of a peasant? How did jurisdiction work? - Medieval France, Denmark

• What was the analog of police in medieval England? - Medieval England

• It's year XXXX of your specialty. A dead body is discovered in the middle of a well populated area and the overwhelming evidence suggests he was murdered. Is anyone in charge of finding the killer? What is the attitude of the public and is there an expectation of justice? - misc places & times

• What is the origin of police in the United States? - 19th c USA

NB: if you have followup questions on locked posts, ask them here & include the relevant user's username so they'll be autonotified