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Associated Press - November 14, 2009 1:05 PM ET
PARIS, Tenn. (AP) - A Henry County constable is going to court to have his power to arrest people and run emergency equipment on his car restored.
The county revoked those powers in July after a state law passed earlier this year allowed them to do so. The Paris Post-Intelligencer reports that Constable Thomas Tharpe now wants a circuit judge to reinstate his ability to arrest people until his term ends in August 2010.
Elected constables are an anachronism in urban Tennessee, but they still exist in rural areas where they mostly perform light law enforcement and serve court papers.
Henry County Sheriff Monte Belew noted in a recent press conference that while constables have made no arrests in the county over the last decade, three constables have been arrested over the same period.
Information from: The Paris Post-Intelligencer, http://www.parispi.net/
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
