Smith County Constable raises concerns over limitations to job

SMITH COUNTY — On Tuesday, Smith County Constable Josh Joplin of Precinct 4 expressed concerns during the commissioners court meeting. He feels the scope of his job is being limited, according to our news partner KETK. Precinct 4 is the largest precinct in Smith County covering 322 square miles. Joplin said recent comments made to him and his deputies by some county commissioners are degrading to his badge. “We’ve received veil threats from certain commissioners that state that they don’t want us to do law enforcement work. They want us to do the bare minimum of our taxpayers serving papers and bailiff in court,” said Joplin.

Another statute of a constable’s job is to enforce the law, that includes traffics stops, arrests and investigations. “If they see us at a traffic stop they want to know why we were stopping that car. If they see us taking someone to jail or putting a wanted poster on a social media page, they wanna know why we are doing that. My answer to that is that we are police officers, that’s our job.

Commissioners did not respond during the meeting. “We’ve been totally supportive of our constables,” said Smith Co. judge, Neal Franklin. Judge Franklin said afterwards that law enforcement is part of their job. “They have statutory duties and they complete those statutory duties, but the community asks them to do a lot and law enforcement in general is part of their job,” said Franklin. Joplin fears potential budget cuts for his office and deputies. “Its ridiculous that my staff should have to go home and explain to their spouse with a chance or likelihood that they could lose their job and livelihood over a personal dislike that a commissioner has for what law enforcement is doing in a precinct,” said Joplin.

Precinct 4 includes Chapel Hill and Winona, which do not have any law enforcement. Constables are their only officers. “I’m not gonna let a commissioners court or an opinion or a political agenda from a politician influence what we do as far as keeping the crime off our streets for our citizens,” said Joplin. Constable Joplin also told commissioners during the meeting, that the safety of his precinct is too important “to just push papers.”