Claims that police forces originated as slave patrols have been making the rounds on the Internet alongssde the movement to defund police forces across the United States. How accurate are these claims, and what was the actual origin of police forces in America?
The short answer is that it's complicated: There were slave patrols established in the early 1700s in the Carolinas and Virginia and by the mid 1830s these were the primary law enforcement agents/groups in the slavery based economies that grew into organized police forces, which were being created to stabalize society for the wealthy, particularly in regards to immigrants, poverty, and labor in growing urban areas all across the U.S. (including enforcing slavery laws in the south).
Police departments weren't the first American group to enforce law (Town watches, sheriffs, constables, and magistrates had all officially existed here since the 1630s) and weren't really started for slavery related reasons (but those charges did carry over from the already formed patrols in applicable locations).
For more details check out my [answer] (https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/gz3fy4/comment/ftfnm5b?context=1) to a very similar question about slave patrols and the origin of American police departments.