LITTLE ROCK — Having won re-election to his unpaid post, Hill Township Constable Rick Scott says he is continuing his patrols in his neighborhood near Maumelle and will keep seeking money from the county to pay for such things as equipment, training and a salary.
His position gives him the authority to make arrests, although Scott, a Republican who first took office in 2011, said he hasn’t made any.
“I don’t do much, and that’s because a lot of people are not allowing me to do much,” Scott said.
Under Arkansas Code 16-19-301, the more than 700 constables in the state are required to “suppress all riots, affrays, fights, and unlawful assemblies” and to “keep the peace and cause offenders to be arrested and dealt with according to law.”
According to a 2009 attorney general’s opinion,the statute’s origins predate the state’s 1874 constitution by more than 25 years.
Scott’s jurisdiction includes all of Pulaski County north of the Arkansas River, but he said his patrols are mostly limited to his neighborhood north of Maumelle.
The 76-year-old retired computer programmer, who lives on 70 acres of woods on Panther Mountain Road, said he drives around the neighborhood in his unmarked pickup almost every day, armed with a badge, handcuffs and gun.
“I try not to make a big deal of it,” Scott said. “I just go get the newspaper, or go get the mail, rather, and I drive around and see what’s going on.”
Although he bought some traffic ticket books, he hasn’t written any yet or made any traffic stops. Instead, he said, he has talked to his neighbors about ignoring stop signs or letting their dogs run loose.
He said he has also spoken to Maumelle police about his belief that people from the city are illegally dumping trash in his neighborhood, and he helped persuade the county to replace a culvert under a road near his house.
For the past two years, he has unsuccessfully asked the Quorum Court for a budget.
This year, the request included a salary of $40,000, along with more than $60,000 that he would have used to buy a vehicle, siren, radio and ammunition.
The Quorum Court’s budget committee last month voted 7-3 to not consider the request, with Republican Justices of the Peace Shane Stacks of North Little Rock, Paul Elliott of Maumelle and Doug Reed of western Pulaski County voting to consider it.
Stacks said he wouldn’t oppose giving Scott a small amount of money for training, as long as it wouldn’t expose the county to greater legal liability.
Elliott, a former North Little Rock police officer and investigator for Union Pacific Railroad, said he misunderstood the motion and does not support funding for the office.
Constables may be needed in less-populated counties, he said, but not in Pulaski County.
“That’s a lawsuit waiting to happen,” Elliott said.
A constable’s failure to perform his duties is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $100, but Big Rock Constable Mike Graves and several other Pulaski County constables have campaigned on promises to stay out of the way of other law-enforcement agencies.
“I take seriously the idea that as long as the office is there, someone responsible needs to hold it down and not do anything,” said Graves, whose jurisdiction includes the county south of the river.
Some state legislators and others have argued that the constable office is outdated. Last year, Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, proposed a constitutional amendment that would have allowed counties to vote on whether to keep the office.
The measure was not among amendments referred by the Legislature to voters, however.
Pulaski County sheriff’s office spokesman Lt. Carl Minden said Scott’s patrols have led a few residents to call the sheriff’s office to complain.
Sheriff Doc Holladay doesn’t have a problem with a constable patrolling “in the same manner as a neighborhood crime watch,” Minden said.
“If they see something that they would have to take action on, that requires law-enforcement action, he would prefer that they leave it up to a trained sworn professional law-enforcement officer to handle the situation,” Minden said.
Scott said he has gone to the secretary of state’s office to examine the papers from the state’s 1874 constitutional convention. His research indicates that constables were once the chief law-enforcement officers within their townships, with the sheriff ’s duties limited mainly to the courthouse and jail.
He said the office can still provide a public service, providing another layer of law enforcement and keeping the power of other officials in check.
“I don’t like the trend of seeing everything centralized under a judge and sheriff,” Scott said.
Dirk Wilkinson, who lives next-door to Scott on Panther Mountain Road, said Scott once went with him to a neighbor’s house that had just been burglarized. The two followed some four-wheeler tracks to a bag with jewelry and other stolen items, he said. The burglars were never caught, however.
Wilkinson said he appreciates Scott’s efforts but worries about whether Scott can patrol the streets safely by himself.
“I don’t think he really realizes what he’s up against,” Wilkinson said.
Scott said he has completed the training required by a 2007 law for constables who carry guns while on patrol and has attended other training offered by the Arkansas Constable Association, but has not completed the training necessary to gain access to the Arkansas Crime Information Center. He said he isn’t aware of any agency in the area that offers the training.
He said he is not bound by the 2007 law’s requirements that he wear a uniform or drive a marked vehicle while patrolling because those requirements are not in the state constitution.
“My agency has authorized bib overalls,” he said.
The constitution requires townships to elect constables but, unlike state statutes, doesn’t list any duties or requirements for them.
Phil Hazlett, president of the National Constable and Marshals Association, said most of the 38 states that have constables also require training. In some states, constables are general law-enforcement officers. In others, they mainly serve criminal and civil paperwork.
“We do not encourage any constable to take on any duty that they are not trained for,” Hazlett, a constable in Maricopa County, Ariz., said.
Dennis Mosely, a Cleburne County constable who is president of the state Constable Association, said he plans to advocate for mandatory training in next year’s legislative session.
“You’ve got people out here that don’t know the law, that think they know the law,” Mosely said. “When they arrest somebody, it’s a black mark on the county.”
He said constables can gain access to the state crime records database by completing 120 hours of training, including a program for volunteer officers offered by a police department or sheriff’s office.
Bill Clinton, the Crime Information Center’s operations administrator, said 105 constables have completed the training. He said that number is in addition to other constables who might have access to the database through other law-enforcement jobs.
Before Scott, the last Pulaski County constable to take an active law-enforcement role was Hill Township Constable Bill Lawson, who appointed 11 deputies and 15 “honorary” deputies, and prided himself on making arrests.
Lawson was defeated in 1998 by fellow Democrat Greg Yielding, who argued that policing should be left up to other law-enforcement agencies. The Legislature passed a law the next year prohibiting constables from appointing deputies.
Lawson, now editor of the Maumelle Monitor, said constables could still play a useful role but should get training first. He said he went through the training required to become a certified officer soon after he was first elected in 1994.
“Unless they’ve had the training, they don’t have any business being out there,” Lawson said. “It’s too dangerous, and it’s a young man’s game.”
Arkansas, Pages 12 on 11/23/2012