On 7 June 1844, JS, as mayor of , Illinois, authorized three pay orders to for his service on Nauvoo’s police force. The city of Nauvoo had established a night watch program in 1842, and in December 1843 the city established its police force—the first one created in and the surrounding region. On 12 December the Nauvoo City Council passed an ordinance “for selecting forty policemen,” and on 29 December the city council held a special session to swear forty men, including —the “High policeman” and captain of the police force—into service. Arnold was sworn in that day and designated a fourth “Orderly Sergeant.” The police swore “to support the constitution of the & the State of Illinois and obey the ordinance[s] of this city and the Mayor according to the best of their ability.” JS asked them to be especially vigilant in rooting out thieves, as well as “all brothels and disorderly conduct.” According to , another member of the police, the force was supposed “to guard the city and especially Br Joseph Smith whose life was threatened by our enemies.”

The 7 June pay orders were not the first received from the city for his work. Arnold received orders for compensation in August 1842 and December 1843 for his service on the night watch and in January, March, and May 1844 for his service on the police force. On 4 June he obtained a pay order for two dollars for two days’ duty as policeman. Most of these orders to Arnold—including those issued on 7 June—do not appear to have been redeemed with cash, even though , the marshal of , stated on 8 June 1844 that “he had bound a portion of Money to pay the police.” The city of Nauvoo was cash poor and had difficulties compensating any of the men on its police force. Payments to the night watch were suspended from October 1842 to March 1843, for example, because of their drain on the city treasury.

Instead of making cash payments, the city developed another way of compensating the police, which likely extended to filling the 7 June pay orders to . When , the city treasurer, received an order for payment, he either recorded the unpaid amount in the city treasury ledger as “endorsed” or issued a type of city scrip and then recorded the entry in the treasury ledger as fulfilled by an “order on Collector.” This scrip, often called a treasury order, could be given to the city tax collector as a credit on taxes owed to the city. The issuance of this scrip for tax credit, however, was unsatisfactory to the policemen. In an August 1844 petition, several policemen, including Arnold, complained that they had “suffered considerable and are now suffering in not being able to realise full value for the scrip.” The policemen stated that they could not “pass it at all” in exchange “for anything that will feed or clothe them.” They thus asked the city council to pass an ordinance that would solve the problem. However, it does not appear that such a measure was adopted.

The first pay order issued by JS on 7 June for is featured here as an example of the three issued for him that day. The order contained first a certification from that Arnold had worked for one day as a policeman. JS then instructed the city treasurer to pay Arnold one dollar out of the treasury. provided JS’s signature for the order. Later, Clayton noted on the order that the three 7 June orders and several other treasury orders for Arnold were fulfilled through a seventeen-dollar payment, which was entered on 1 August 1844. According to the city’s treasury ledger, the amount credited to Arnold that day was actually twenty-seven dollars. The reason for this discrepancy is unknown.