Police are modern. They came into existence after the United States did. Before that, people relied on the community - if one person was stolen from, the community considered it a collective responsibility to address the issue. If it was an issue between two people in the community, a trusted person would mediate. Sometimes this was someone in a leadership role, but other times it was Taylor from down the road, because they want someone who is always calm, fair, and reasonable, and both people trust Taylor. Just like there are lots of other things police currently handle that they shouldn’t, like people having a mental health crisis.