Convenience Big Store: How unchecked police agencies became a political powerhouse in Harris County

March 18, 2024

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Good morning, Houston.

Happy Monday! March Madness kicked off yesterday with Selection Sunday. The tournament begins Tuesday with the "First Four" games before the real action cranks up starting Thursday. If you haven't made your selections yet, here's a printable bracket.

☁️ Temperature check: High of 66; low of 48. Justin's insight: After a stormy stretch of weather in the Houston area, drier and cooler weather is on tap this week. Highs will feel more like early February. Read more here.

Yasmeen Khalifa, Audience Engagement Producer

yasmeen.khalifa@houstonchronicle.com

Best of the Bayou

Today we're talking about how unchecked police agencies became a political powerhouse in Harris County...

If you read one thing: In the first part of "Unchecked Forces" — a new Houston Chronicle investigative series — reporters explore what Harris County's constables do, how they became so powerful and why, more often than not, no one holds them accountable.

What is a constable?

A constable is a licensed peace officer who is elected. Constables and their deputies have all the same powers of a city police officer or sheriff's deputy.

In many states, city police departments and county sheriffs are the main agencies charged with keeping the peace; constables aren't even in the vocabulary. But in Texas, constables have been part of the fabric of law enforcement for nearly two centuries. Harris County has eight of them, and they collectively employ nearly 1,800 sworn deputies – hundreds more than any other county constables' offices in the state.

The constables now account for $236 million a year of Harris County's budget, while the sheriff's patrol budget is $293 million. And in recent years, they have waged an increasingly aggressive campaign for more resources and recognition.

What did the investigation find?

For years, the constables have argued they are being "defunded" by county leaders. Yet their budgets, taken together, have hit record highs every year for a decade.

At times, they've cast themselves as the last bastion against lawlessness in a county teetering toward collapse. Yet the vast majority of calls they respond to involve traffic stops, minor disturbances, alarms and other non-criminal activity, their own data shows.

Their supporters say they are the most accountable form of law enforcement in the county. Yet they have virtually unchecked powers and extraordinary protections from accusations of misconduct that many police do not have.

Read Neena Satija, Mike Morris, Caroline Ghisofi, Matt DeGrood, and Eric Dexheimer's full story here.

More on what a constable is here.

Stay in the Loop

Photo by: Susan Barber

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🚗 Outside the Loop

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— Yasmeen Khalifa