Stop electing sheriffs and get rid of constables

And constables, for those of you, like me, in southern states.

We don’t elect police chiefs at the local level and we don’t elect directors of public safety at the state level. Why should we elect sheriffs? We have no reasons to vote for or against sheriff candidates on political backgrounds.

Instead, let each county’s commissioners court, or county commission, hire that county’s sheriff, just like our city councils hire police chiefs.

As for the office to eliminate entirely, it would require another constitutional amendment, but it’s worth it.

We don’t need constables. We need most of their duties performed, but we don’t need a special position for that, let alone another elected office to not only have partisan elections but waste taxpayer money by being on the ballot.

Instead, the simple thing to do here in Texas would be to amend the constitution to eliminate the office, replacing it, inside the sheriff’s office of each county, with a required deputy sheriff, or even assistant chief deputy, for warrant service or similar.

Since most counties have three or four constable districts, we’d be getting a bunch of offices off the ballot that don’t need to be there. We would also eliminate reduplication of secretarial and other staff that could all be run through a sheriff’s office.