Deen Dickson Enlightens on Duties of Constable

Serving as constable is a job that varies in what it is required to do. Constables locate individuals and serve warrants; they find arrest violators; and serve civil papers, subpoenas and anything else the courts may require. They also serve as Bailiff for Justice of the Peace Courts and even testify as required. They can respond to emergency calls, complaints and assist other agencies as needed. Deen Dickson, Constable of Precinct 2 knows the requirements to serve as constable extremely well.

“This is not an immature job,” Dickson began. “This is a job for somebody who has been in the profession for a long time, and I believe it needs to be someone who knows how to work with people and take care of them. They need to fulfill the job as Constable by state law because, if you don’t do it right, then I’m liable, the county is liable and people can get hurt.”

Dickson is running for Constable again for another consecutive year and provided San Angelo LIVE! an idea of some of the job duties he has experienced.

 “One of the first writs of execution I received was a million dollar writ,” Dickson stated. “You have to be real careful in how you do it. You have to use certain formulas to figure in interest and attorney’s fees, court fees and the rest. Once you finalize the money that is due, you have to go out and try to collect that money. Sometimes, they don’t have the money so then we have to start seizing property. Under the state law, a person is exempt from a certain amount of property that can’t be taken away, but luxury items such as boats, motorcycles, vehicles and items like that are items we can seize and sell to try to obtain money for the writ.

Dickson said as Constable, he also processes evictions. If landlords have someone in violation of the lease or who hasn’t paid, they will file an eviction.

He explained, "They have so many days to go through court. These are real time sensitive because the law only gives you a certain amount of time to get parties served. If there is judgment against the tenant, they have five days to get out. If they don’t, the landlord can come back and file a writ of possession, which is basically a court order to move them out. Those are the difficult ones I have to do because you have to go to these people’s houses and tell them they have to leave. I feel like I do well at that because I have a good relationship with people and with the landlords. I try to build a rapport with both of them that way it can be done in a peaceful manner. Sometimes, it’s not a peaceful matter. Evictions are some of the most dangerous. We have run into drug paraphernalia and weapons, so we are not doing these by ourselves. We go in as a team.”

On Saturday, January 16, the Wall Fire Department hosted a fundraiser for Dickson in the Wall Fire Hall. Dickson stated he was very pleased and humbled by all the support he has received.

“It went excellent, so I am very pleased,” Dickson said, “Just so happened we did it during the Stock Show and Rodeo, so I had a lot of people that were coming to visit in and out. They were cooking down at the church so we were all going back and forth doing things.”

Dickson said he has been in the law enforcement community for a few decades and doesn’t want to stop now. This is his life; it’s what he knows, and it’s what he enjoys doing. He said he can’t see himself doing anything else.

Dickson explained, “When I graduated high school from Wall, when I turned 18, I was able to join the Wall Fire Department. I have been serving on the Wall Fire Department since 1982, and the last 12 of them, I have been Fire Chief. We’ve reached a lot of goals such as grants and donations through the community which helped build our department up to one of the best trained and best equipped departments in West Texas. We are recognized for that and I am very proud of what we have done. I just want to continue to do what I have been doing as I feel I have done a good job. In talking with other people, I ask what else do they want out of me, and they say they don’t want anything, that I am doing fine. I feel good about what I do. I love being around people, serving the people. I’ve done it for 32 years, I was with the police department for 22 years. I served patrol, criminal investigations, and then, 12 of those years, I was a motorcycle officer. I worked traffic accidents and I taught in the Safety City. While with the police department, I was one of the leaders for our Law Enforcement Explorer Group.”

Overall, Dickson said he understands what the job Constable entails and embraces the fact that the children of San Angelo are the future.

“The kids are an important asset to the city and county and I feel like being a part of that you are giving them someone to look up to, a role model,” Dickson elaborated. “One of the deals we do out at the fire department is, we have a Jr. Firefighters Program in which we get kids at 15 years of age. If they are still in school, we let them come in and train with us. We let them go out in the fire field with us, but we don’t let them do the firefighting. They help us with the equipment. I am very proud of that program because a lot of these guys have gone on to the Forest Service. I have one who became a nurse, and he is working on Life Flight in San Antonio. Another is a Captain on the Fire Department with the military base down in San Antonio. One has followed the law enforcement phase and with the Texas Forest Service; he is now in Merkel. A lot of my juniors have turned out great and that makes me feel good.”

Dickson also enlightened about the limitations of being Constable. The job is not all encompassing, and he fully understand that sometimes he has to utilize outside help.

“One thing about being a Constable is I can only follow state law,” clarified Dickson. “The city is controlled by city ordinance, and therefore, I am not able to do the litter violations and items like that. We’ve done public nuisance, which is out in the county. That is a program we started about four years ago where we try to clean up. Of course, in the county, you are limited in what you can do, and again, you have to go with state law.

Dickson said in Schleicher County, the Constable’s Office was really involved in the case with the church community [Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS)]. 

"We were pleased with that because they brought the women and children into San Angelo, and they housed them out at Fort Concho," the Constable said. "The problems we were running into were the CPS papers, and in order for them to have their hearings, we had to get these kids and moms served. That became a real task because we had a lot of people with the same last name and we had to figure out a way to handle that. We weren’t getting a lot of cooperation when trying serve because it was their belief that they don’t believe in authority. We had a lot of state officials who came in. Two of the women Texas Rangers had built a rapport with the ladies, which they called the ‘den mothers’. The Texas Rangers were great, and once they [the mothers] understood that this was the process, we began to get the papers delivered pretty quickly.”

Dickson stated he has embraced his Constable years and everything that has brought him to this point in his life. He has no intentions on slowing down now.

Dickson simply stated, “I’m involved in everything. When something happens, I get phone calls and I go and visit with the families. You hug with them; you cry with them; you laugh with them. And that is just the way I am. I want to keep on doing that. I like being the one they can call. I can’t leave that.”

For those who wish to support Dickson for Constable, send donations to the Deen Dickson for Constable Campaign, P.O. Box 329, Wall, TX 76957, Attn: Bonnie Born, Treasurer.