There was no local police in the past.
“MMORPGs and fantasy worlds alike love their ‘local village guards,’ but these societies cannot afford many full-time soldiers and the ones they can afford tend to be guarding things like castles and towns (or just, you know, hanging around the Big Man’s person), not villages. The people who will arrest you for robbing the village are the villagers (who, remember, make up the levy in an emergency anyway).”