LAWS 8145: History & Law of American Policing

Coverage of historical state statutes on Westlaw usually only goes back to the 1980s or so. However, HeinOnline's State Statutes: A Historical Guide contains the majority of superseded historical statutes prior to the 1980s for all fifty states. However, it is possible that the statute for the year(s) you are interested in is not available on HeinOnline. If, say, you are interested in what a New Jersey statute looked like in 1932 but Hein has historical statutes for, say, 1929 and 1937, you can look at the later statute, find the statute(s) you are interested in, and look at the statutory history of the section. If your statute hasn't been amended during the relevant time period you are fine. If it was amended, in say, 1931, you can look at the Session Laws Library to see how it changed and you may also want to locate legislative history materials for the amending act- see the legislative history research page in this guide for more information or ask a librarian. You may also check the library's catalog to see if we have the statutes in print and/or ask a librarian about how to obtain the historical statute(s).

Another valuable resource is HeinOnline's Session Laws Library. This is a comprehensive collection of session laws for all 50 states. 

HeinOnline contains the complete historical federal statutes, session laws, and the Code of Federal Regulations. HeinOnline also has select historical agency documents and decisions.

To conduct Federal Legislative History Research, use ProQuest's Legislative Insight. If you are interested in federal Congressional materials more generally (i.e. not just related to a specific bill), use ProQuest's Congressional Legislative & Executive Publications.