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erned and directed by the said commissioners, in
reference to such special duties, and that the whole
or part of the police force may be regulated by the
county commissioners in regard to the times they
shall perform duty or cease to perform it, if they shall
think it expedient to exercise such power, notwith-
standing former provisions of this act; that the said
police shall arrest and secure, in the public jail, all
absconding slaves; that they may arrest and punish
by a reasonable number of stripes, all free negroes
and slaves, who shall be found roaming about after
ten o'clock at night, in spring, summer and autumn,
and nine o'clock in winter, without a permit, or au-
thority, a distance of five miles from their homes or
places of residence, unless they shall be on proper
business, and have a reasonable excuse, and to dis-
perse and punish, as constables may now do, all tu-
multuous or disorderly assemblages of negroes, free
or slaves; to seize and dispose of, as constables may
do, all guns found in the possession of free negroes
or slaves, contrary to law; to arrest and take before
some Justice of the Peace, all persons, white or col-
ored, found stealing, or committing any felony or
misdemeanor, or who may be in possession of stolen
property, or which they may have, under the circum-
stances, strong and probable reasons to believe may
have been stolen or improperly or illegally obtained;
to arrest and take before a Justice of the Peace, who
may commit to jail, any free negroes found in company
with absconding slaves, and all persons who may aid
or assist such slaves to abscond, or who may advise,
encourage and pursuade, or entice such slaves to ab-
scond; and that the county commissioners shall have
power to fill from time to time, all vacancies in said
special police, occasioned by death or removal from
the county; and also to remove any members of said
police for misbehavior, misconduct, neglect of duty,
or incompetency, and to appoint others to fill the va-
cancies caused by such displacement.
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