Talk:Constable

2004 discussion
This talk page contains harsh comments by unsigned users that were not needed, wikipedia (and the law enforcement wikiproject particularly) are not the place for such comments.--SGGH 14:06, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

I promise you, in the U.S., a Constable is a different position than Patrol officer (although the UK definition of constable = patrol officer is correct). Do a Google search on County Constable and you'll see what I mean. For some reason, the first two dozen pages or so all correspond to the state of Texas, but digging deeper shows other states have the same position. R ADICAL B ENDER &#9733;  06:22, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC)


 * Wrong again. Read the texas constitution: they are at the precint level. There are approximately 780 texas constibles at the precint level in 254 Texas counties. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Eytmisharts (talk • contribs)

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/txconst/sections/cn000500-001800.html

There are 23 constable precints in Maricopa County Arizona alone. Far more than the one sheriff, currently Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Constables duties are quite distinct from those of patrol officers or of county sheriffs. But what the hey, you got a kick out of seeing your words appear on the internet, so what does it matter if they are wrong, huh?


 * Yep, getting that all-important edit number up is far more important than researching and submitting accurate information. I even had time between ridiculing the rampant misinformation on this site to find this page: http://www.aele.org/constable.html, which states:

''their powers differ somewhat among the various states, although their statutory powers are usually in addition to their English common law authority. They serve civil process (summonses, subpoenas and orders) and writs (attachments, garnishments, and replevins). They also evict tenants after a civil action is brought to remove them, and collect civil judgments by seizing and selling a debtor's personal property. Constables also serve arrest and search warrants issued by the Justice Court. ''


 * In Alabama, some precincts still elect a constable but this office may be abolished by local option, so User:RadicalBender is apparently getting his jollies misinforming Alabama students about their state's political structure and history.


 * And what about New Jersey, Deleware (originally at township level, now varied), Tennessee. Doesn't matter. Good enough. Kids in those states can look it up in a real encyclopedia, or get a bad grade for being stupid enough to beleive Wikipedia is generally accurate even though no controlled editorial process assures the accuracy of information. I suppose counting the number of google hits for "county constable" and being well-liked at Wikipedia is good enough to make a constable a county-level official though, if the right person advances the lie. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Eytmisharts (talk • contribs)

As far as your comments go, in reference to Texas, since you brought it up first, yes, the counties are divided into precincts, but that doesn't mean anything because the district boundaries don't apply to anything. And guess who sets those boundaries in the first place? The county. And since the counties are charged with determining precinct boundaries (when applicable - smaller counties don't have precincts), constables are officers of the county. That's why they call themselves "Dallas County Constable" or "Bexar County Constable" or what have you.

Secondly, as far as everything else goes: guess what? This will likely come as no surprise to you, but I don't know everything. Neither do you. Sometimes information is incorrect. But, you know what? Thousands of things are changed daily on Wikipedia and everyone else doesn't lambast people in the Summary box or the Talk page. You know what everyone else does? Rather than make themselves feel superior by trying their best to insult or humiliate the original author or their intent, they fix and/or add to the information.

When I first added the header on Constable in the U.S., it was done with the intent that future people who knew more would come along, add and edit to the information far more than I ever could. You, on the other hand, deleted the whole section completely, which meant that the section could never have improved. You may not like the idea that everything here is a work in progress or that (gasp!) something may be incorrect until it is fixed, but that's the way it is. Wikipedia is an ongoing work in progress. If something is wrong, fix it, don't snipe about it. If that concept rubs you the wrong way, sorry, that's just the nature of an open encyclopedia. I'm not here to debate you on the finer points of the concept of Wikipedia. That said, if you choose to be here, you'll have to follow the rules like everyone else, so no more insults, allright? R ADICAL B ENDER &#9733;  14:25, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC)


 * — Preceding unsigned comment added by Eytmisharts (talk • contribs)

The Truth about the Texas Constable
There is a lot of misinformation in this discussion concerning Texas constables, so let me clear it up with the facts.


 * 1) . Constable precinct boundaries are set by the County Commissioners Court in accordance with Texas Local Government Code §81.021. There are two to 8 precincts per county.
 * 2) . Constables are elected by these precincts and they must provide bailiffs for the Justice Court(s) in their precinct. That is the only significance of the precinct boundaries.
 * 3) . They can also serve civil process in any precinct in their county and any contiguous county to their home county IAW Texas Local Government Code §86.021.
 * 4) . Moreover, they can serve warrants throughout the state IAW Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 15.06.
 * 5) . Furthermore, their jurisdiction to arrest, without warrant, extends throughout the county, where they have full arrest powers IAW Texas Local Government Code §86.021 and see Texas Attorney General’s Opinion GA-0189.
 * 6) . They also have full arrest powers outside of their jurisdiction, while in the state, except that they can’t arrest for certain traffic violations IAW Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 14.03(g).

Finally, constables and their deputies in Texas are full-fledged, “real” law enforcement officers. They must graduate from a state-certified law enforcement academy and in Texas, it does not matter what type of peace officer you are. All types of peace officers must be trained to the same state requirement. They also have the same powers of arrest and jurisdiction of sheriffs and their deputies. In the Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies, 2000, which was published by the US DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, it was noted that there were 2,630 full-time, sworn constables/deputy constables in Texas. Of this number, the plurality (35%) of constables/deputy constables were primarily assigned to patrol duties. For example, in Harris County Precinct 4 and 5 (Greater Houston area), there are over 600 patrol deputies. Additionally, 7% handled criminal investigations, i.e. they are detectives and investigators.

Also, TCLEOSE, the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officers Standards and Education, serves as the regulatory agency for ALL peace officers in Texas, which includes Sheriffs, Constables, Security Police, Police Officers and Marshals.

AND...The Bureau of Justice Statistics, US DOJ, which see, also considers the Texas Constable to be a unique peace officer position.--68.81.105.166 00:58, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Pennsylvania State Constables
Pennsylvania Constables: Are non-emergency officers governed by the executive office of the Governor. We have full arrest authority, but our primary duties consist of civil and criminal process, prison transport, and court security for the minor judiciary.

A Constable is a sworn Law Enforcement/Peace Officer that can arrest for felony crimes and breaches of the peace committed in his presence, or by warrant anywhere in the commonwealth. A Constable is also an officer empowered to carry out the business of the statewide district courts, by serving warrants of arrest, mental health warrants, transporting prisoners, service of summons, complaints and subpoenas, and enforcing protection from abuse orders as well as orders of eviction and judgment levies. Constables are also charged with maintaining order at the election polling places. The Constable may be elected or appointed by the court. Each Constable must provide his/her own vehicle for performance of their duties. State law recently changed and now requires that the Constable's vehicle be marked. Constables operates under the authority of their local district court. Each district may have its own rules about the markings of the Constable's vehicle, in some districts a Constable may mark his vehicle as he/she wants. The is no statewide rule about the type of markings on a Constable's vehicle.--71.185.193.245 (talk) 18:03, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

Kentucky Information Updated
Kentucky Constables have powers similar to sheriffs and their authority is countywide as is the sheriffs. The county government cannot limit the power of the constable as it is a constitutional office. The only power they may have is whether or not they may use blue lights in their county and this is under debate since it interferes with their constitutional duty to enforce the law.

Constables do not need to be trained or attend the academy. The deputy constable appointments must be approved through the county only if their county is available to have constable by statute. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.19.219.173 (talk • contribs) 06:03, June 17, 2006


 * Thank you for your suggestion! When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make whatever changes you feel are needed. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the  link at the top. You don't even need to log in! (Although there are some reasons why you might like to…) The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes&mdash;they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills.  New contributors are always welcome. --jpgordon&#8711;&#8710;&#8711;&#8710; 06:07, 17 June 2006 (UTC)


 * I am the editor who added the Kentucky section. I was working on basic knowledge and assumptions made based on some recent situations involving constables.  But as jpgordan stated above, if my information is incorrect, feel free to edit it. It won't hurt my feelings and, in fact, editors correcting each others mistakes is the part of the true spirit of Wikipedia. Dblevins2 14:49, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

I have updated the section with information provided by the Legislative Research Commission. 2007

Etymology of 'Cop'
I took the liberty of removing a small statement to the effect that in America police officers of constable equivalent rank are called 'cops' meaning 'Constable On Patrol'. This is folk etymology. 'Cop' is simply a shortened form of 'copper', a term that's been in use for police officers and their predecessors in Britain for centuries, and which originates with the Latin word capere, meaning to capture or apprehend. But, on reflection, I thought it best to remove the statement since it linked in to the term 'cop' or 'copper' but without the folk explanation it didn't really have any specific link to 'constable'. - Adaru 03:04, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

cut 'n' paste
Large chunks of this article appear to be cut 'n' pasted, specifically, certain US state sections. bad, bad, bad. And no references. more bad, no donut for you. I don't have time right now to figure what is legit and what's plagiarized right now, but thought I should flag it here. Bobanny 21:52, 29 January 2007 (UTC) p.s., just kidding about the donut - I'm frying some up right now.

Historical section
I am extremely skeptical about the claim "Byzantine administrative structures were largely adopted by Charlemagne in developing his empire". Whether it's true for the creation of the office of Constable or not, I've never seen any such general claim anywhere else. Which is doesn't mean much--I'm no expert; but it is at odds with what I have read about how the Franks and Carolingian states functioned. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.108.216.33 (talk) 17:11, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Revert Mistake
Mistaken reversion on my part, fixed. My apologies to Goldflower Texas Patriot | Talk | Contributions 01:02, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Yeah, but you also accused yourself of vandalism. If I were you, I'd be flaming the hell out of myself for the insult. --jpgordon&#8711;&#8710;&#8711;&#8710; 01:05, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Clean up: References
This article uses inline URL links to outside web pages. Although this is technically possible, it is disallowed. Please refer to WP:CITE for pricise instructions how to  use inline citations and their associated footnotes in  the 'References' section of an article page. Do note however, that all cited sources must comply  100% with  WP:RS and WP:V. We can tag uncited claims as needing references, but  after a while, if not addressed, the claims, or entire paragraphs may be deleted. Furthermore, the URL www.leg.state.nv.us. appears to be invalid. --Kudpung (talk) 01:34, 7 January 2011 (UTC)

This is my fault and I will try and get to it in the next week. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Jordan Clements Ross (talk) 22:45, 9 January 2011 (UTC)

EAR
Members of the WP:EAR team have been asked to comment on this article and/or the pattern of editing of its contributors. Please see: Editor assistance/Requests.--Kudpung (talk) 01:56, 7 January 2011 (UTC)

Nevada Constables
Greetings, I hope that I can find some non-adversarial assistance in settling a dispute on the article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constable#Nevada if at all possible. An anonymous user keep undoing my edits. Now this is certainly part of the process at Wikipedia and I should emphasize that I'm very new at this. Nonetheless I have a few principle objections to the edits of this editor. a) edits are made without explanation b) they appear to me to constitute censorship since they delete relevant and valid data and c) there seems to be an advocacy at play here not a neutral stance.

I would really like to communicate with this editor but so far I've had no luck. Any suggestions, especially without elevating this to a formal complaint would be great.

Jordan Ross, Constable Township of Laughlin, Nevada

Jordan Clements Ross (talk) 22:43, 9 January 2011 (UTC)

Massachusetts Constables
There is a long history of the Massachusetts section being edited with, quite frankly, pretty bloated information. In addition to the current link to Mass General Law chapter 41 Section 94 which list the duties of constables, here are a few facts and clarifications.

- Constables are private citizens, as are police officers. They are appointed or elected in their respective cities and towns, after paying a fee and securing a bond. There is no training mandated by the state.

- Constables are not paid for their work by their respective cities and towns; they earn fees from service of papers and writs. In fact the majority of their duties involve serving civil papers, such as eviction notices, court notices, warrants, and such. They do have powers of arrest in limited circumstances, most notably in cases where warrants are issued for dead beat dads, or in divorce procedings. They also have statutory powers of arrest encoded in Massachusetts law.

- A popular reference in the wiki that keeps popping up is a Massachusetts Supreme Court case called Hartley v. Inhabitants of Grandville. In it, it references constables as "The general duties of such an officer are to be vigilant to preserve the peace, to prevent he commission of crime, and to arrest all offenders in his town who might be arrested without warrant, and to procure warrants in other instances of crime committed." It also states that "They possess somewhat extensive powers. See 1 Blackstone's Com. 356". All true, but what is never mentioned is that the case is from 1913, when regular police forces were still being formed and constables still served a pretty formitable peace keeping function, and although these functions are now carried out by police constables still possess that authority.

- Another frequent reference cited is Mass General Law Chapter 90, which is the Mass motor vehicle laws. In Section 1, it set the definitions for the purpose of that particular chapter, and defines "police officer" or "officer" as mentioned in the chapter as "any constable or other officer authorized to make arrest or serve process, provided he is in uniform or displays his badge of office." So on it's face, it would seem that a constable can enforce motor vehicle law. Police Chiefs are issued citation books from the Registry of Motor Vehicle and it turn distribute them amongst their officer and not to constable, in the past constables have been issued have been issued citation books, the more common response to motor vehicle violations that occure in the presence of a constable is to provide the information to police, then the police officer may choose to have the constable right or sign the citation if it did not occure in his resence.

- An appeals court case from 1989 is Ramponi v. Board of Selectman of Weymouth. It determined that constables are not considered "persons in the service of a governmental unit" and therefore could not utilize the town's group insurance plan. Note, the statement that the Massachusetts Secretary of State actually used this case as a cite to prohibit constables from utilizing the state seal is inaccurate.

Constables do not perform police functions however, some functions suck as making a valid arrest is common among both and Police Policy in major departments is, assist the constable as you would another police officer.

There are a select few constables who seem intent on stepping outside their roles and embelishing both their duties, as well as their authority. An overwhelming majority of constables are hard working, level headed people who understand the position and its limits, and interact with the law enforcement community in a harmonious fashion. I wrote this because of the bitter comments that used to infest the wiki page, and wanted to give a more balanced description. Quality617 (talk) 02:02, 30 November 2011 (UT


 * Thanks for writing this, there are definitely some crazy constables who keep editing this page in order to make themselves seem "more legit". Constables indeed can serve a valuable role when it comes to civil process, but its important to remember that they are NOT POLICE OFFICERS IN ANY WAY/SHAPE/FORM. Its true that they have broad powers because of an antiquated law, but people need to recognize that this no longer is in actual use today. If a constable tried to pull over cars on the highway, he would be arrested for police impersonation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:558:6017:158:2946:7E15:A765:9DFF (talk) 08:51, 14 September 2016 (UTC)

Proposal to separate medieval from modern usage
Constable has various meanings. Most of this article is about the constable as a modern law enforcement officer. This is an different meaning from the medieval constable who was a) the household official in charge of a castle, b) the Constable of England who was the Quartermaster General of the armies or c) a manorial officer whose duties including helping to keep the peace, which I assume is the parish constable article. My proposal is that we create a new article for case a) which is hardly mentioned called something like Constable (castle) or wind it into castellan and make reference to it here. Any views? --Bermicourt (talk) 11:18, 7 January 2012 (UTC)

Roman Empire
The observation that the term "comes stabuli" was used only in the eastern empire is incorrect (See A H M Jones, History of the Later Roman Empire p 625 – now old but still authoritative – which mentions it in the context of Proconsularis and Numidia; and Jones, Martindale and Morris' Prosopography which mentions Stilicho in the office). I have corrected accordingly.

Incidentally, what is the material on Armenia and China doing here? Though interesting and useful, they are not about the office of "constable", nor linguistically related to it.

Diomedea Exulans (talk) 10:16, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

What about "In Popular Culture"?
For example Constable Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine? -- 24.212.139.102 (talk) 21:03, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

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"Detective constable" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Detective_constable&redirect=no Detective constable] has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at  until a consensus is reached. Paradoctor (talk) 00:57, 28 April 2024 (UTC)