Bill would require Kentucky's future constables to complete 'POPS' training

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WDRB) -- After more than a decade of attempts to change constable powers in Kentucky, one lawmaker is hoping this is the year.

Rep. Adam Koenig, R-Erlanger, is the sponsor of House Bill 239, which would require future constables to complete "POPS" training — peace officer professional standards — in order to maintain their arrest powers.

POPS is the training for municipal police officers and sheriff's deputies.

Right now, Kentucky constables don't have to have this specific training as a requirement, but the Kentucky Constables Association said constables do participate in other trainings.

Wade McNabb, president of the Kentucky Constable Association, said POPS training is waitlisted as is, so it's unfeasible to add hundreds of constables too.

"We want training, but we want it to be fair and we want it to be attainable," McNabb said.

Koenig said this bill would hold constables to a higher standard and keep people safe.

"We've had too many incidents in the state of constables going too far or skirting the law, and these cases just continue," Koenig said in a committee meeting.

Koenig mentioned several headlines where constables were in trouble, like in 2011 when a Jefferson County constable shot a suspected shoplifter at a Walmart.

McNabb said requiring POPS doesn't fix problem constables.

"It's not a training issue. It's a moral issue," he said. "And there are bad apples in every profession."

The Kentucky League of Cities also supports HB 239 and helped explain the bill's intent. It would not take away constables all together and it would go into effect until January 2023, so it would not apply to constables who win elections this November. Current constables would be grandfathered in and would not be required to complete the POPS training.

HB 239 passed the House and is expected to be heard in a Senate committee Wednesday.

There is another bill that would set up a constable certification the Kentucky Constable Association supports, but it hasn't been heard in a committee.