Are Dallas constables doing a car shakedown?

Combine the latest news, about Dallas Constable Jaime Cortes and several of his deputies driving cars month after month on temporary tags, a high rate of towing vehicles, and a cozy relationship Cortes and fellow constable Derick Evans have with towing and impound company Dowdy Ferry Auto Services, which has contributed to both their campaigns, and this smells to high heaven.

Dallas constable hired double-dipping clerk

Thumbs down to Dallas County Constable Derick Evans of Lancaster (whom I know personally). He hired a clerk from Dowdy Ferry Auto Services, an iffy towing and impound company now under state investigation.

Worse? Margarita Trevino still works at her old place, too.

So, why is this so problematic? Evans and one other constable have a contract-free relationship with Dowdy, whose owner has given them multiple campaign contributions.

More Dallas County constable shenanigans

Serving civil court papers outside your precinct? Again, let’s get rid of the office entirely. Abolish it and roll its duties into sheriff’s offices.

Yet another reason for Texas to abolish constables

Two Dallas County constables’ high-volume auto towing practices are coming under fire, as is the use of an impound lot whose owner just happened to give them both campaign contributions.

(That’s also another reason to stop electing any law enforcement officials in general.)

Yet another reason Texas needs to can constables

Amend the state constitution and delegate the jobs to sheriff’s deputies. We’ll save a bunch of money around the state on elections, and on reduplicative constables’ offices in metropolitan areas like here in DFW. And, we’ll get rid of budget-fluffing crap like here in Dallas County:

Civil deputy positions are funded based on the number of civil papers served. Under the county’s longtime staffing formula, constables get one officer for every 200 papers served, which include subpoenas, writs, eviction notices and lawsuits. The more papers a constable serves, the more deputies he gets.

But county officials say they recently learned the constables have been inflating their numbers.

For example, a deputy constable that goes to the office of CT Corp., a registered agent for hundreds of companies, to serve 50 lawsuits at once counts that as 50 papers served.

Get rid of the office of constable. Amend the constitution and get rid of it.

Unneeded in the 21st century.

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.