Vigilantes, or Vigilance Committee, in United States history, a self-appointed or voluntary organization of citizens to put down lawlessness. A vigilance committee differed from a lynch mob in that vigilantes observed some sort of legal procedure and had at least semi-legal status. In pioneer days in the western United States, vigilance committees were quite common in sparsely settled regions where law enforcement was weak. The San Francisco Vigilance committees, active during the 19th-century gold strikes, virtually eliminated crime from the community.
Vigilance committees are still sometimes formed by citizens who feel local police strength is insufficient to prevent disorders or to control street crime, especially at night. They generally are called civilian patrols.
