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A rather frustrating video made the rounds recently, starring a woefully ill-suited Arkansas constable haranguing a confused and scared woman.
It was the latest in a growing string of reminders that many constitutional offices in state and county government serve the Arkansas that existed in 1874, the year our current Constitution was ratified.
In the video recorded by an England police officer’s body camera, we learn a constable from Jefferson County tried to conduct a traffic stop in his barely marked pickup truck after a woman passed him on a rural highway at a speed he found unacceptable.
The woman, unconvinced this constable dressed in a blank T-shirt and ball cap was a legitimate law enforcement officer, declined to pull over immediately and instead drove into England.
From there, the constable made a fool of himself, accosting the woman and the uniformed officers who came to sort it all out.
While the England officer did a commendable job of de-escalating the situation, the episode is another reminder that Arkansas should either no longer have elected constables or significantly reform the constable system to ensure they receive proper training and oversight, which probably also means paying them to attract quality candidates.
As it stands now, many of our constables are unqualified wannabes cosplaying cops on a power trip. They receive minimal training to carry a gun and access the state’s crime information database, but oversight of whether they complete this training seems lacking.
The constable was a necessity in the 1800s when transportation was limited to horseback and remote communication occurred by post. But today, sheriffs’ offices already are responsible for patrolling entire counties and help is a phone call away. We’d probably be better off leaving it to the professionals.
That’s coming from someone who lives in a rural area and is the constituent of a very active, well-trained constable.
This isn’t the only constitutional office we ought to look long and hard at.
Consider the office of county coroner, constitutionally mandated in all 75 Arkansas counties regardless of population or need. In rural counties, maintaining a separate elected coroner office often means paying a salary for duties that might be performed a handful of times per year. Some counties struggle with coroners who lack medical training yet hold significant authority over death investigations. A regional approach, with professionally trained medical examiners, would be more cost-effective and improve quality.
At the state level, do we really need a land commissioner in 2025? I think counties can handle the disposition of their own delinquent property, and other state agencies could handle the oversight of mineral rights on state lands.
This has nothing to do with the people who hold any of these positions; many do a fine job.
But it’s time to govern for 2025, not 1874.
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