From Field Police to Field Watch

Abstract

In the Hungarian law enforcement history, the field police has utmost importance because Hungary’s first police law was Act IX of 1840 about the field police. Under the later act of 1894, every village was obliged to use a field guard for the purpose of oversight of its borders; an individual who possessed more than 100 acres of land and an owner of closed or fenced space had the right to employ a field guard. The law institution of field police and field watch has been going through a long way since its foundation. After the decline in the 20th century, the law institution of field watch has started to revive. In this paper, for the first time in the Hungarian local governmental law enforcement researches, we review the function and work of the field watches as a part of the Hungarian local governmental law enforcement.