If state can’t get rid of scandal-ridden constables, then it’s time for more oversight

The General Assembly has a lot of heavy lifting this session, from a budget to tornado relief to arguments over schools. But there is one incredibly easy, smart and bipartisan move they could make with minimal effort: Pass Rep. Adam Koenig’s bill to take police powers away from the outdated office known as county constable unless they receive police training.

There have been so many problems with constables in Kentucky over the years that it’s hard to know where to start. The reality is that the office should be eliminated. But requiring the people who often pretend to be police officers to get police officer training is an excellent place to start.

“Kentucky has the most comprehensive officer training program in America. Allowing untrained constables to roam around Kentucky exercising the same peace officer powers is unsafe and an insult to our officers,” Koenig, a Republican from Erlanger, said of House Bill 239. “This is a criminal justice issue as much as anything else.”

It’s a criminal justice issue because constables —whose main job is serving legal papers — seem to so often end up on the wrong side of the law. In 2016, R.G. Dunlop and John Boel of the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting wrote an exhaustive series on the lack of oversight and accountability that had led to so many constables being charged or arrested for crimes ranging from drug trafficking to prostitution.

“Constables are gods unto themselves, armed with badges and guns but almost always with little or no formal training,” they wrote. “They masquerade as qualified, legitimate police, but case after case shows that they often pose a threat to public safety.”

They detailed the story of a Laurel County constable, who unable to serve a warrant on a man, followed him to a convenience store and shot him dead. Or Jackie “The Tire Man” Roberts, a convicted felon also found guilty of domestic violence who was elected Clay County constable in 2010, and then was sent to federal prison for drug trafficking.

It goes on and on. Since the publication of that series, we’ve had the saga out of Pulaski County of Constables Michael “Wally” Wallace and Gary Baldock. A federal jury convicted Wallace and another county constable, Gary Baldock, on charges of conspiring to violate people’s civil rights and possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute it. Constables get a small salary but they get a cut of money or property seized in criminal cases.

Baldock died in jail while awaiting sentencing on separate charge of shooting and wounding an FBI agent trying to arrest him.

Or in Fayette County where back in October, deputy constable Danny Prater was arrested and charged with two counts of sexual abuse. His boss, Wade McNabb, is currently head of the Kentucky Constable Association.

Numerous attempts have been made over the years to abolish the office, but it’s been opposed by some rural legislators who say constables are necessary to help overburdened law and court officials, like sheriffs.

Fayette County Sheriff Kathy Witt is having none of it.

“I’ve never been shy about expressing my views on the office of constable: They perform duplicative duties that our office performs, they are not required to get basic academy training for their staff, and they are not audited. The office of constable has outlived its usefulness here in Lexington.”

Budgets and expenses?

Witt brings up an important piece of the constable problem — the lack of any accountability except for with voters, many of whom don’t even know what a constable is supposed to do. Constables are not part of the State Auditor’s annual review of county offices. They are supposed to turn in budgets and expenses to fiscal court, in Fayette County, that would be the county clerk, but that has not happened, according to County Clerk Don Blevins.

McNabb denied an open records request from the Lexington Herald-Leader for his budget and expenses, saying that because his office is not funded with tax dollars, it is not subject to open records. That is a dubious claim that will be decided at a later time. But for the moment, we don’t know what salaries they make, how much they pay for their official cars or what they spend money on.

McNabb has also refused numerous interview requests in his role as either a Fayette County constable or in his role with the KCA. Its Facebook page is lobbying heavily against Koenig’s bill.

Oversight of constables varies from county to county. In Pulaski County, for example, constables have been part of the fiscal court’s healthcare system, which required them to turn in office budgets and expenses. County fiscal courts can also decide if constables have blue light privileges, which is to say whether they can use the blue lights of law enforcement to pull people over. In Fayette County, the Urban County Council acts as the fiscal court and has prohibited the county’s three constables from using blue lights because they are not emergency responders. However, in January of last year, McNabb and two of his deputies were charged with using blue lights.

Koenig’s bill takes a few first steps in better oversight, (but constables would still retain the power to “to take up vagrants, kill mad dogs, kill and bury a distempered horse, ass, or mule”). In order for new constables to have any police powers, they would have to first complete “peace officer training.” Mayors and county judges could determine how many deputies each constable is allowed to appoint and approve each one. Each mayor or county judge could determine what paperwork must be turned in every year, but at a minimum it has to include how much they’ve collected in fees and seizures. It would allow constables with the peace officer training to use those important blue lights and allow local authorities to revoke that privilege as well.

Sheriff Witt is probably correct that constables have outlived their usefulness, but tradition dies hard in Kentucky. Koenig’s bill is an easy first step. The General Assembly can add an easy but important fix to their roster by turning Koenig’s very reasonable legislation into law.