Yes but before that they were slave patrols. They still are - although they are more like debt slave patrols . It’s absolutely psychotic and immoral to earn money to kill another human or lock them in a cage.
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Britain didn't have legal chattel-slavery in 1829, not since the early Middle Ages.
(Some British colonies certainly re-instituted it quickly enough, though)
Guilds "policed" their own members in the cities, when needed, but it usually wasn't, as courts were readily accessible and respected.
Private security "thief-takers" also existed, but had no special authority, no monopoly organisation, and were at the mercy of the courts.
Villages and clans did any required policing in the countryside.