The Office of the Sheriff is over 1,000 years old and has a long and interesting history. As far back as the beginning of English Law, the Office was the center of local administration of justice. In England, groups of hundreds banned together and were known as "Shires", similar to a modern day county. The word "Sheriff" itself came about in an unusual manner. Originally the word "Reeve" meant an administrative official who had the general duties of an overseer or bailiff. His authority extended over various territorial areas, sometimes called his "Bailiwick". His title was often used in combination to indicate his jurisdiction. The Reeve of a Borough was called a Borough-Reeve, The Reeve of a Church, a Church-Reeve, the Reeve of a Shire, the Shire-Reeve. Eventually, a Shire-Reeve was shortened to Sheriff, and the word survives to this day. The Sheriff’s principal function in the earliest days seems to have been to protect the interests of both the King and people against the powerful barons. He executed the King’s Writs and presided in the county court and the hundred court. The Posse Comitatus is the entire body of people who may be summoned by the Sheriff to assist in preserving the public peace or in executing any legal precept, which is forcibly opposed. If a criminal or escaped suspect was at large, it was the Sheriff’s responsibility to give the alarm: the "hue and cry", as it was called. The term is still used today, although almost invariably the comitatus is dropped, and we speak of the posse, or the Sheriff’s Posse.