Could a Texas constable enforce traffic laws outside the constable's precinct but still within the same county?

Texas AG Opinion JM-761: Countywide Traffic Enforcement by Constables

Plain-English summary

The chairman of the Texas House County Affairs Committee asked whether constables could enforce traffic laws throughout their counties or only within the precincts that elected them.

The Attorney General concluded that a 1987 amendment gave constables countywide authority beginning September 1, 1987. The amended statute allowed a constable to perform anywhere in the county any act or service that another statute expressly authorized the constable to perform.

Constables already had statutory authority to make warrantless arrests in their precincts for offenses committed in their presence or view, including traffic offenses. The amendment extended that authority beyond precinct lines to the rest of the county.

The opinion distinguished the period before the amendment's effective date. It said the Court of Criminal Appeals would not have treated constables as having the same countywide traffic-enforcement authority before September 1, 1987.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1987. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Common questions

What changed on September 1, 1987?

An amendment to article 6889 took effect, allowing a constable to perform an expressly authorized act or service anywhere in the county containing the constable's precinct.

Did the rule apply only to serving legal process?

No. The opinion read the amendment to cover any act expressly authorized by statute, with process service listed as an example rather than the exclusive subject.

Why did that include traffic enforcement?

Other statutes authorized constables to make warrantless arrests for offenses committed in their presence or view, including traffic violations.

How did the new Local Government Code affect the amendment?

The code recodified article 6889 as section 86.021(b). Government Code section 311.031 preserved same-session amendments and made the separately enacted amendment control over a conflicting code provision.

Did the opinion recognize countywide authority before the effective date?

No. JM-761 said the Court of Criminal Appeals would not have recognized that power before September 1, 1987.

Background and statutory framework

Constables were constitutional officers elected by justice precinct. Their traditional duties included executing process and attending justice court within the precinct.

The 1987 amendment to article 6889 stated that a constable expressly authorized by statute to perform an act or service could do so anywhere in the county containing the precinct. It also addressed civil and criminal process service.

The Attorney General applied the amendment's plain language. Because the wording was unambiguous, the opinion relied on its common meaning rather than outside construction aids.

Citations and references

Statutes:

• Former V.T.C.S. article 6889, countywide constable authority
• Texas Local Government Code section 86.021(b), recodified constable provision
• Texas Code of Criminal Procedure articles 14.01(b) and 2.13, arrest and peace-officer duties
• Former V.T.C.S. article 6701d, section 153, traffic-offense authority discussed in the opinion
• Texas Government Code sections 311.031 and 312.002, code construction

Case:

• Cail v. Service Motors, Inc., 660 S.W.2d 814 (Tex. 1983)

Source

• Landing page: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/jim-mattox/jm-0761
• Original PDF: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/1987/jm0761.pdf

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain; the linked PDF is authoritative.

July 30, 1987

Honorable Mark W. Stiles
Chairman
County Affairs Committee
Texas House of Representatives
P. O. Box 2910
Austin, Texas 78769

Opinion No. JM-761

Re: Authority of constables to enforce traffic laws anywhere within their counties

Dear Representative Stiles:

You have asked whether constables may legally enforce traffic laws and regulations within their counties, outside their respective precincts as well as within them.

Constables are constitutional officers elected in each justice precinct. Tex. Const. art. V, §§18, 24; V.T.C.S. arts. 6878, 6889. Article 6885 requires a constable to "execute and return according to law all process, warrants and precepts to him directed and delivered by any lawful officer," to "attend upon all justice courts held in his precinct," and to "perform all such other duties as may be required by him by law."

Article 6889, V.T.C.S., was recently amended to read:

(a) Every constable may execute any process, civil or criminal, throughout his county and elsewhere, as may be provided for in the Code of Criminal Procedure, or other law.

(b) A constable expressly authorized by statute to perform an act or service, including the service of civil or criminal process, citation, notice, warrant, subpoena, or writ, may perform the act or service anywhere in the county in which the constable's precinct is located.

(c) Notwithstanding the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, all civil process may be served by a constable in his county or in a county contiguous to his county, except that a constable who is a party to or interested in the outcome of a suit may not serve any process related to the suit. (Emphasis added).

See Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. __, at __ (H.B. No. 386).

The new provisions of article 6889 take effect September 1, 1987. September 1, 1987 is also the date upon which the new Local Government Code takes effect. See Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 149, at 1397, 2548. The code, intended as a non-substantive recodification of prior law, id. at 2548, repeals article 6889, V.T.C.S., id. at 2547, but incorporates its provisions as section 86.021(b) of the code. As enacted, the code section does not reflect the 1987 amendment of article 6889 by the 70th Legislature, but subsections (c) and (d) of section 311.031 of the Government Code provide:

(c) The repeal of a statute by a code does not affect an amendment, revision or reenactment of the statute by the same legislature that enacted the code. The amendment, revision or reenactment is preserved and given effect as part of the code provision that revised the statute so amended, revised or reenacted.

(d) If any provision of a code conflicts with a statute enacted by the same legislature that enacted the code, the statute controls.

Consequently, references herein to article 6889, V.T.C.S., are also references to section 86.021(b) of the Local Government Code.

As recently amended, subsection (b) of article 6889 (emphasized above) grants to constables the authority to perform anywhere in the county any act which he could, by express statutory authorization, perform in his precinct. By virtue of articles 14.01(b) and 2.13 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and, in the case of traffic offenses, by virtue of section 153 of article 6701d, V.T.C.S., a constable has express statutory authority to make warrantless arrests in his precinct for offenses committed in his presence or view.

The words of the amended statute are unambiguous and it is the duty of the courts to give them their plain meaning. Gov't Code §312.002; Code Crim. Proc. art. 3.01. A statute should be given its common everyday meaning in such circumstances, and extrinsic aids and rules of construction are inappropriate. Cail v. Service Motors, Inc., 660 S.W.2d 814 (Tex. 1983). See 53 Tex. Jur. 2d Statutes §125 (1964).

We conclude that after September 1, 1987, the effective date of the amendment to article 6889, V.T.C.S., constables may legally enforce traffic laws and regulations within their counties outside their respective precincts as well as within them, but that the court of criminal appeals would not hold them empowered to do so before that time.

SUMMARY

After September 1, 1987, the effective date of an amendment to article 6889, V.T.C.S., constables may legally enforce traffic laws and regulations within their counties outside their respective precincts as well as within them.

Very truly yours,

JIM MATTOX
Attorney General of Texas

MARY KELLER
Executive Assistant Attorney General

JUDGE ZOLLIE STEAKLEY
Special Assistant Attorney General

RICK GILPIN
Chairman, Opinion Committee

Prepared by Rick Gilpin
Assistant Attorney General

¹ Cf. Parks & Wild. Code §11.019(b), (c) (extending statewide jurisdiction to game wardens), amended in 1983 subsequent to the Preston decision.