I was reading about Isabelle I of Castille and it said that she funded Spain's first government sponsored police force, and that previously smaller independent local groups would attempt to keep law and order.
I realize that the military as an institution has been around for a very long time, but I was wondering about the world history behind government funded forces specifically dedicated to law enforcement.
I'm not sure if this would be the earliest police force, but Classical Athens had a board of officials called the Eleven and a force known as the Archers (or the Scythian Archers) to maintain public order in the Assembly and other public spaces.
The Archers were public slaves, bought and provided for by the Athenian state. They were referred to as Scythians because they were thought to have originally been Scythian mercenaries, but the later ethnic makeup of the force is unknown.