[RWebb]

He is in Pa., which has all sorts of weird offices - they have townships all over the place and each one has a township cop.

NY state also has some really messed little local courts - I think the NY State legislature or AG was trying to reform them or shut them down - there was an article in the NYT a few months ago on this.

my guess is that these things are relics of ancient British settlers and mostly in fomer colonies

of course, La. has a lot of relics of ancient French law - they still have parish police juries, and some of the the Code Napoleon still survives, according to attys there.