Concept and history of the people of people’s friends and public associations of law enforcement

This scientific article reveals the meaning of the concept of «people’s squad», and also tells about the emergence of the first ideas of involving the population in the protection of public order and the implementation of such ideas. The article traces the stages of the formation and subsequent development of the institute of «people’s squads» both in pre-revolutionary Russia and in the Soviet and post-Soviet period. It tells about the normative legal acts regulating the activities of the people’s squads, the functions that were performed by the first such associations, the functions of the people’s squads at the present time. Examples are given of the active people’s squads, as well as those whose activities were terminated. In the appendices to the article statistical data are presented in the form of graphs, histograms on the number of registered national druzhin in the Chelyabinsk region and their activities.