The Conseil de Ville, by resolution of March 14, 1805, authorized the Mayor to appoint commissaries for the various districts of the city. While the resolution does not go into detail as to duties and responsibilities, it does suggest that a similar system had existed during the Spanish regime and that its success made it worthy of continuation. Shortly thereafter, on April 4, 1805, the Council set salaries for the Commissaries, identifying a Commissary General, an Assistant Commissary, and four Constables. These officers were to be appointed by the Mayor. On June 12, 1811 another resolution called for the reduction of the number of Commissaries from four to two, a Commissary and an assistant (just when the number had been increased from two to four is unknown). That decree also reduced the number of constables from three [sic] to one, and provided that the surviving one be the Superintendent of Wagons for the city.

On November 5, 1817, the Council passed an ordinance that more formally established the Commissaries of Police. This law provided that the Mayor nominate, with Council consent, three persons of "good morals and behaviour" as Commissaries. These individuals were to take an oath before the Mayor and also were to provide a security bond in the amount of $1000. Each Commissary would reside in, and be responsible for, one of the city's three wards. They were to:

• walk the streets and other passages of their wards
• examine vagrants, beggars, and other "idle and disorderly persons" as to their place of residence and form of livelihood (those not giving satisfactory answers were to be brought before a magistrate to be dealt with according to law)
• stop runaway enslaved people and bring them before the proper authorities (and share in the bounty provided for by the Code Noir)
• report on the performance of the City Guard within their wards
• generally see that the ordinances for the government of the city were obeyed