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Constable PCT 3
BURNET COUNTY CONSTABLE PRECINCT 3

810 STEVE HAWKINS PARKWAY

MARBLE FALLS, TEXAS 78654

830 798-3024

MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of the Burnet County Precinct 3 Constable’s Office is to improve the quality of life for our citizens by working collaboratively with the Justice of Peace, area law enforcement, Commissioner’s Court and local business owners to prevent crime, enforce the law, reduce fear, increase mobility and target violent offenders for prosecution.  

Scott Davis
ABOUT CONSTABLE SCOTT DAVIS

Scott Davis was appointed Constable of Burnet County Precinct 3 on November 1, 2022, replacing retired Constable John “Chip” Leake. 

Constable Davis began his law enforcement career in February 1991 with the Houston Police Department.  Four years later, Davis returned home to Conroe, Texas where he joined the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office in September 1994.  Initially assigned to the Patrol Division, Davis promoted to the rank of Detective in 1998.  Davis went on to fill various roles at the Sheriff’s Office to include, Patrol, Jail Sergeant, Detective Sergeant and Hostage Negotiator.  Davis retired in October 2015 to pursue his lifelong dream of living in the Texas Hill Country and purchased a home in Burnet County.  Davis grew up visiting Marble Falls and has many family roots that reside in the area.  Upon relocating to Burnet County, Davis joined the Williamson County District Attorney’s Office in Georgetown as a Sergeant Investigator.  In March of 2019 Davis joined the Burnet County Sheriff’s Office as a patrolman and was later assigned to Courthouse Security.  In July 2021 Davis filled a vacancy with the 33rd & 424th Judicial District Attorney’s Office as an Investigator until his appointment to Constable, Precinct 3.

Constable Davis strongly believes in a community-based policing approach in an effort to strategically reduce crime in Burnet County.  His entire adult life has been dedicated to public service and improving the quality of life for the citizens he serves.     

Constable Davis is married to Jennifer and has two daughters, Jessica and Ashley, 6 grandchildren, Blaire, Jackson, Rebecca, Pricilla, Jake and John Thomas (JT). 

PROUDLY SERVING OUR COMMUNITY WITH RESPECT, INTEGRITY AND PROFESSIONALISM

Constable
THE HISTORY OF THE TEXAS CONSTABLE

On March 5, 1823, John Tumlinson, the newly elected alcalde of the Colorado District in Stephen F. Austin's first colony in Texas, wrote to the Baron de Bastrop in San Antonio that he had "appointed but one officer who acts in the capacity of constable to summon witnesses and bring offenders to justice." That appointee, Thomas V. Alley, thus became the first Anglo law enforcement officer in the future republic and state of Texas. Other prominent colonists who served as constable included John Austin and James Strange.

The Constitution of the Republic of Texas (1836) provided for the election in each county of a sheriff and "a sufficient number of constables." During the ten years of the republic's existence, thirty-eight constables were elected in twelve counties, the first in Nacogdoches County and the largest number (thirteen) in Harrisburg (later Harris) County. Court records indicate that violent crime was rare in the republic, except when horse or cattle thieves entered Texas from Arkansas or Louisiana; most indictments were for nonlethal crimes such as illegal gambling or assaults resulting from fights or scuffles. Juan N. Seguín and Elliott M. Millican both served as constables during the republic.

Shortly after Texas became a state, an act passed by the legislature specified that the constable should be "the conservator of the peace throughout the county," adding that "it shall be his duty to suppress all riots, routs, affrays, fighting, and unlawful assemblies, and he shall keep the peace, and shall cause all offenders to be arrested, and taken before some justice of the peace." Constables were the most active law-enforcement officials in many counties during the early statehood of Texas.

After Texas seceded from the United States in 1861, many county offices, including that of constable, remained unfilled or were filled by men less competent than their predecessors. During the military occupation of Texas after the Civil War, the election of county officials all but ceased, as the Union military appointed more than 200 individuals to state and county offices. A number of these appointees refused to serve; from 1865 to 1869, over one-third of the county offices in Texas were vacant. Many counties had no appointed or elected constables during this period. Austin, DeWitt, Fayette, McLennan, and Navarro counties had but a single constable each, appointed by Gen. Edward R. S. Canby, head of the Fifth Military District, in 1868–69.

Under the Constitution of 1869, a Reconstruction document that centralized many governmental functions, no constables were elected in Texas from 1869 to 1872, though some were appointed by justices of the peace. Many of these appointees lacked experience in handling violent offenders and access to secure jail facilities, and had few deputies to call upon for assistance. They were no match for the poor, embittered, and heavily armed former soldiers from both sides who roamed the state, often turning to crime. As a result, the office of constable began to diminish in importance, and the better-equipped county sheriffs began to assume a leading role in law enforcement. Still, a number of prominent peace officers of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries began their careers as constables or deputy constables, including Thomas R. Hickman, George A. Scarborough, and Jess Sweeten. In 1896, while serving as a United States deputy marshal, Scarborough shot and killed the controversial El Paso constable John Selman, who had himself gunned down the notorious John Wesley Hardin in 1895.

The Constitution of 1876, designed to decentralize control of the state government, reduced the power of many state officials and mandated that constables would once again be elected at the precinct level. A 1954 constitutional amendment extended their term of office from two years to four. Today, constables numbering approximately 780 are elected from precincts in most Texas counties. Their law-enforcement roles vary widely, but in general their police powers are no different from those of other peace officers in the state. Complete records do not exist, but the most recent estimate is that at least ninety-three Texas constables have died in the line of duty, including sixty-seven in the twentieth century.      

Constable Davis is married to Jennifer and has two daughters, Jessica and Ashley, 6 grandchildren, Blaire, Jackson, Rebecca, Pricilla, Jake and John Thomas (JT). 

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