Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting (https://kycir.org/tag/constables/)
A Laurel County constable — the focus of KyCIR’s “Untrained & Unaccountable series — was convicted of reckless homicide in the shooting of an unarmed man in a convenience store.
He is the latest constable to land on the wrong side of the law.
Lexington officials are considering reining in the county’s constables, an elected office that has come under scrutiny across the state following years of misconduct. The move follows a KyCIR/WAVE-3 investigation.
The former constable is one in a long line of troubled constables who have run amok in Kentucky for years.
We found numerous elected constables across the state involved in criminal behavior, mischief and more. What about our constables here in Jefferson County? Admittedly, they don’t much.
Kentucky’s constables are gods unto themselves, armed with badges and guns but almost always with little or no formal training. And their actions have grave consequences. Dive into our joint investigation with WAVE-3 News.
WFPL’s Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting and WAVE-3 News publish a co-reported investigation into constables across the commonwealth.
Hi, I’m Jasmine Demers, a reporter for KyCIR covering issues related to youth and social services. I’m also a corps member with Report For America, a national program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities.