Hill Country Village PD jurisdiction question

[ged_782]

Originally Posted by Randyk47

Now it’s come up what is the authority of the park police and school district police? They come off as real police officers. Are they? Guess I grew up in a sheltered environment, I don’t remember so many law enforcement agencies as I’ve seen here.

Yes, they are real police officers.


Park Police locally are a division of SAPD, specializing in law enforcement/patrolling at city parks. SAPD also has their Airport Police Division. School district police are also Texas Peace Officers. They are employed by their respective school districts, and their focus is on campus security/patrolling.


We've had Park Police here as long as I remember. School police are another matter. Didn't used to have them, but most local public school districts have had their own police departments for a number of years, now.

[Neshomamench]

All Texas peace officers (city cops, county deputies,game wardens, airport police, school police, park police, state troopers, constables, various sworn investigators from all kinds of agencies....whatever) are cops and they all have roughly the exact same powers. They all have the same basic license from the state.


What is different will be their roles or policies, but they are all still cops and can do cop stuff anywhere in the state. Again, *mostly* the jurisdiction issue is one of the courts.

[Neshomamench]

Originally Posted by Randyk47

This is almost exactly the explanation I got from the Bear County Sheriff a couple of years ago. I was talking to the Sheriff at a social event and I asked about the authority of Constables to enforce traffic laws. At the time the Precinct 3 Constable was running almost constant radar speed traps in the Canyon Springs area both inside and outside the city limits. Having not come from a jurisdiction with constables I was wondering what exactly was their role. The Sheriff said it was “proper” in terms of state law but a bit unusual that the Constable was doing that considering SAPD and Sheriff coverage in that area. Without getting into the politics of the moment the Sheriff allowed that the particular Constable in question was being very aggressive and had several times gotten crosswise with other police departments. Interestingly after a couple of years of pretty constant presence in the area I now rarely see a Constable vehicle.

Yeah, again, in Texas, they are all cops and can do all the things cops in Texas can do.


The issues of role and policy are something else. Agencies *usually* do what they are supposed to do and not much else because A. They have a budget and that is all they can afford to do. B. IF they get to far out of their mission, they can start getting in the way of other agencies.


Specific to Constables and Sheriffs, since the heads of those things are elected, they tend to do whatever they think will get them re-elected. Since a Sheriffs department is pretty much a full service agency, it does not look unusual when they do all the things cops do. Constables functionally exist to serve a Justice of the Peace court, but some Constables, in an effort to remain the elected Constable, send their deputies out to do a lot of stuff outside of serving the JP court they serve.

Most other agencies do not often get to far outside of their role. There is little need, the budget does not allow for it and "why?"....again, there is no need.


Of course, sometimes there are real emergencies and cops are expected to do cop stuff. If things go down, outside of their area or even off duty, a statutory duty to act exists (In Texas a cop has their powers 24/7 regardless of being on or off duty). Of course, being a good witness can meet that.

[Soviet]

Originally Posted by ged_782

I don't know specifically about Hill Country Village, but I do know there were reciprocal agreements made between SAPD and some of those neighboring municipalities a few years ago, regarding law enforcement within a certain buffer zone beyond respective city limits. So it's possible HCV could be doing traffic enforcement along streets and roads flanking their city limit lines.

Overzealous law “enforcement” and revenue generation! SICKENING that such things occur in the USA! I’m ashamed!