Kentucky constables are fighting back against a new state law stripping future constables of police powers unless they receive professional law enforcement training.
The Kentucky Constable Association filed a lawsuit Thursday in Bullitt County Circuit Court challenging the constitutionality of the measure enacted by state lawmakers this year. The suit requests an injunction blocking the law.
Bullitt County Constable Larry Watkins, a plaintiff in the suit, said the law prevents constables from serving the people who elected them.
“We are the peace officers you see when you pick up your kids at school, attend church on Sunday or drive in funeral processions,” he said in a news release Thursday. “We are here to assist the police and sheriffs in public protection, but this law ties our hands.”
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s office did not immediately respond to an email Friday seeking comments on the lawsuit.
The role of constables — and even whether the job should exist — has been debated by Kentucky lawmakers for years. The new law only applies to constables elected for the first time after January 2023. It requires them to receive certification through professional training — like other law enforcement officers — before exercising such police powers as making traffic stops and arrests.
Anna Whites, attorney for the constable association, said access to the training will be limited to only a few constables each year, which “effectively eliminates a constitutional office.” The lawsuit says the measure will strip constables of rights granted to them by Kentucky’s constitution.
“More training is a good goal, but this law does not provide it,” Whites said in the release. “Instead, it blocks access to training as a way to eliminate the office of constable. It is not only a badly written law, it is unconstitutional.”
Constables were first made constitutional officers under the state’s 1850 constitution, the suit said.
Republican state Rep. Adam Koenig was the lead sponsor of the new law. Supporters of the measure have said most constables have little or no training but wield many of the same powers as police officers and sheriff’s deputies. Opponents said the measure would worsen policing shortages in rural Kentucky, where constables provide backup for other law enforcement.
The Associated Press
