When Peace Officers Became Police Officers

Civil, moral, and law-abiding citizens are required to maintain the peace.

“We thought America was the best in the world. But unfortunately, this happened, and it made us [think] that American police are the same as our police in Burma." “¹

The Burmese Christian band leader named Eh Wah after Oklahoma police stopped him for a lousy taillight and confiscated $53,000 raised by his band for a church and orphanage.

Throughout the 1800s into the decade of the 1960s, peace officer was the term most often used in America to refer to sheriffs, constables, troopers, marshals, and other officers of the state responsible for maintaining the peace.

The Andy Griffith Show launched October 3, 1960, on network television, and it soon became America’s #1 prime-time television show, watched by 27 million people.

Sheriff Andy Taylor served as the model for an American peace officer.

Andy kept the peace. But it was easy in 1960 to maintain the …