Forty years ago this November saw President Ronald Reagan wallop Walter Mondale in a landslide election to win re-election, Larry Holmes defeated Bonecrusher Smith for the heavyweight boxing championship, and there was the release of a new movie called “A Nightmare on Elm Street.”

That same month also saw Leo Bullock become an Alabama constable.

Bullock — who has long outlasted Reagan, Holmes, and even fictitious monster Freddy Krueger — is back on the ballot again this fall, hoping to win for an 11th time. A Republican, Bullock will square off against Democratic challenger Luther Harris in the Precinct 47 contest.

“I’ve once had an opponent,” Bullock said, not immediately recalling the last time he faced a re-election challenge. “But my name recognition is pretty good in the community. I’m here in uniform and people recognize me at Mardi Gras, and I’m a people’s person who serves a lot of papers.”

Bullock is one of the more than two dozen constable hopefuls in Mobile County on the Nov. 5 ballot. The position is traditionally voted on during presidential contests and will occur again next month in 21 Alabama counties.

The state is one of 23 in the U.S. that still elects the law enforcement position that dates to the colonial times but is also one that stirs frequent debates on whether it’s outdated and unneeded.

It’s also a position where there is no budget, and constables – after celebrating their election wins – must go out and purchase their own equipment including patrol vehicles. There is no reimbursement for office expenses, leaving most constables facing critics who contend they get elected to show off a badge on their own dime.

They also get no salary or stipend in most Alabama counties, according to one constable website in Mobile. Constables are paid from fees collected through tickets or civil service or when privately hired for certain services,” according to that website.

Pros, cons

While the position exists in Mobile and Jefferson counties, the constable is most utilized – and, in some cases like Wilcox County, much appreciated — in the more rural regions of the state where sheriff’s departments are hamstrung by tight budgets and the resources to hire deputies.

It’s a reality recognized by Republican Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, who told AL.com last week, that constables can be invaluable additions to a law enforcement’s makeup.

“There are some rural communities in which constables serve a valuable role due to a limited number of law enforcement in those communities,” said Marshall, the top law enforcement official in Alabama. “We do see constables serve a valuable role in places across the state.”

But other leading law enforcement officials are not so certain. Huey “Hoss” Mack, the newly named executive director of the Alabama Sheriff’s Association and the former long-time Sheriff of Baldwin County, said that the existence of constables should be determined on a county-by-county basis but, should they continue to exist, more law enforcement training is needed.

Talladega County is the most recent example, abolishing the constable position last year.

“There should be mandatory training requirements and certifications for them just as we have for all sheriffs, deputies, and law enforcement officers in the state,” Mack said. Baldwin County abolished the position in the 1990s.

Paul Irwin, past president of the Alabama Chiefs of Police Association and a former police chief in Leeds and Pell City, said he believes “anyone serving as a law enforcement officer in a community” needs the proper Alabama Peace Officers’ Standards and Training (APOST) certification. Constables are not required to be APOST-certified and can be elected even without having any prior law enforcement experience.

“Without the training, and the experience of being a law enforcement officer, I really don’t think they are needed,” Irwin said.

Responsibilities, outlook

Constables have the legal authority in Alabama to make arrests, carry a pistol and stop and question a person within reason. But the position, in reality, is more utilized in a perfunctory role that includes serving legal papers like a court summons, attend court hearings when called upon by the sheriff, provide a law enforcement escort during a wedding or funeral, enforce traffic within a church or school zone, and provide security at community events.

“We serve a lot of papers outside of court, and we do funeral escorts in the city and county,” said Bullock, who also helps enforce traffic control outside Christ United Church in Mobile on Sunday mornings. “Trained officers are equipped to respond to serious crimes, and this lets the constables pick up the little jobs like that.”

Political observers believe not many voters will understand the exact duties of the job while perusing the ballot on Election Day. In many cases, there will be constable races but no names on the ballot, meaning a write-in candidate can become a constable by winning the most write-in votes as long as he or she lives within the precinct.

Mobile County has the most precincts with constable contests among the counties in Alabama that elect the office. Of the 80 precincts, only 25 or 31% have a name listed for a constable race. And only two precincts – including Bullock’s race – features competition between a Democrat and Republican.

“When they see the name on the ballot, more than likely, 90 percent of the people will just ignore it,” said Steve Flowers, a longtime political observer and commentator in Alabama, and a former member of the Alabama State House. “It’s an obsolete office in most counties. But the reason they don’t do away with the office is there are some counties, mostly rural, when it becomes a big job for someone.”

Former Wilcox County Sheriff Earnest Evans, who spent 45 years in law enforcement within the small Alabama Black Belt county, defends the position saying it serves a vital role for law enforcement in a small area, and offering a “great help” to deputies.

The job, like any law enforcement position, can place constables in danger. In 2021, longtime constable and process server Madison “Skip” Nicholson was shot and killed while on a domestic disturbance call in the tiny town of Yellow Bluff.

“He was one of my friends. He worked with us for 40 years and he liked what he did,” Evans said about Nicholson, who was 78 years old at the time he was shot and killed. “You find that a lot of them now just want the title.”

The numbers of constables willing to run for office are also dwindling, Evans said. He said in years past in Wilcox County, it wasn’t uncommon for all 37 precincts have at least someone represented as a constable. This year’s election has only nine people slotted to run for the office.

“The constable here is in the precinct, and he is the law enforcement of the precinct,” Evans said. “They’ve always worked alongside the sheriff’s office. If the sheriff is short on people, they are here to pick up the slack and they are there for support with the deputies.”

Political contests

In Conecuh County, some constable contests – along with other local races on the ballot – appear to be a means to a political end, at least for the county Republican Party looking to unseat Democrats.

Of the 16 constable precincts, Republicans have a candidate in 10 of them. An Independent is running in another. The only contested race is the only constable contest featuring a Democrat: John “Butch” Salter, a constable in Conecuh County since the early 1980s, faces off against Republican Donald Jones.

Salter said constables in the rural Black Belt counties are active and available, and cost taxpayers almost nothing to support.

“Some of your counties that got rid of them probably wished they kept them,” Salter said, adding that it’s an ongoing quest of constables in Alabama to get them involved in more training.

There really is no real training with the position, and that’s a problem,” Salter said. “Most are not in law enforcement. If you don’t have a relationship with your sheriff, you have a hard time doing anything.”

Salter said he believes he has competition because of the GOP’s interest in bumping out any Democratic office holder during the Nov. 5 election, by riding the coattails of former President Donald Trump.

Conecuh County is bit of an oddity in Alabama in that it’s a purple county. Voters, while backing Trump in the past two elections, have also backed Democratic politicians during local contests. To illustrate how closely divided the county is, the 2022 sheriff’s race ended by a mere one vote and has since led to court challenges.

Terrie Ryan, the county chair of the Conecuh County GOP, said up until 2022, there wasn’t a strong local presence of Republicans holding county offices.

She said the objective this year is to continue with Republican wins, even if means bumping off a four-decade constable.

“Conecuh County has choices for the first time,” Ryan said. “Do you choose voting for a Republican or a Democrat? We feel that Republicans are the best choice because we bring conservative and Christian values and are interested in doing what is best for the community and helping it grow economically.”

She added, “We have 9,000 registered voters here and we are something like 48 percent who are voting in the Republican Party. It’s an uphill battle. Up until 2022, this (county) was blue all the way.”

Salter said he’s not sure how a constable position is caught up in partisan politics. Jones declined to comment about the race.

He said he is hopeful voters he has long known in his precinct will forego the option of voting straight-ticket Republican – even if they want to vote for Trump — and consider spending some time going down the ballot and casting a vote for some Democrats, including himself.

“My district is split, and I have a beat area that is completely in the woods,” Salter said, adding he hopes the Trump voters in the county will also vote for him, even though Salter is a Democrat. “I’ve talk to a lot of them about doing that.”