By Morgan Montalvo
WOAI News
All four Bexar County Constable’s offices face significant personnel layoffs, WOAI News has learned.
The cuts, effective Oct. 1, average about 20 percent of peace officers at each of the county’s four precincts, says Andrew Lopez, spokesman for the local constable’s association.
Lopez tells News Radio 1200 WOAI the personnel reductions will be the second ordered by Commissioner’s Court in about two years, and come at a time when the number of evictions and other civil court actions requiring peace officers are exploding in fast-growing Bexar County.
He says reducing the number of deputy constables on the streets will lead to a slowdown in civil courtrooms when parties are not served in a timely manner.
“Citations have gone up, lawsuits, I mean the paperwork coming in is high – it’s not low,” Lopez says.
He says commissioners have offered constables no justification for their decision.
“The reasons for it, we have no idea,” says Lopez.
In Texas, constables are sworn peace officers and graduates of the same training as police or sheriff’s patrol deputies, with the same duty to act if they witness crime or are called to investigate illegal activity.
While the majority of a constable’s or deputy constable’s duty involves “service” of warrants, court orders, subpoenas, or other civil documents, they also work closely with other law enforcement agencies, respond to public assistance calls, and often are the only backup available to an officer in trouble.
Lopez says for some time Bexar County commissioners have tried to restrict constables’ duties and resisted requests for better equipment and adequate staffing. He says local deputy constables earn about a third less than their counterparts in many much smaller counties.
“The law states that we’re Texas peace officers; that we’re allowed to do all these other things: work warrants, arrest people, and so on. But the county has told us time and time and time again we only do civil process; but that’s not what the law says,” Lopez says.
“People have accidents; do we just drive by and ignore it, or do we act like peace officers and stop and render help?” he asks.
Lopez says as other parts of Texas grow, local governments have increased the size of their constable’s offices accordingly and view them as value-added.
“In Harris County, the constable’s offices have grown; they are almost 2,000 strong. They have something like six or seven precincts. In Dallas County they’ve grown. In Travis County, they’ve grown. In Bexar County, they’ve declined.”
Bexar County has four precincts, each with its own constable’s office.