Hecke wins constable runoff

Scott Hecke won Tuesday’s Republican primary runoff for Hot Springs Township constable, outpolling Jim Kerr by 18 votes in a race with only 114 ballots cast.

The former Hot Springs police officer and Garland County sheriff’s reserve deputy won

66-48, validating the 48-percent plurality he polled in the three-way race for the party’s nomination during the May 22 primary. His 1,342 votes last month bested Kerr by more than

13-percentage points and incumbent Rich Pratchard by more than 30-percentage points. He’s unopposed in the November general election.

Hecke is the Lake Hamilton Township constable but moved to Hot Springs Township following

his re-election to a second term in 2016. He listed a Burchwood Bay area address with the Garland County clerk’s office. Hot Springs Township includes most of the city of Hot Springs’ corporate limits, while Lake Hamilton Township is south of the corporate limits in southeast Garland County.

Constables are law enforcement officers elected to twoyear terms who receive no compensation. Hecke said Wednesday the certification he has retained from his time as a police officer gives him authority akin to a sheriff’s deputy. He said constables support the sheriff’s department, providing back up and responding to low-priority calls that allow the department to use its limited resources for more urgent matters.

The sheriff’s department has said personnel limitations allow only four to five deputies to be on patrol during each 12hour shift.

“I’m trying to help the community and the sheriff’s department,” said Hecke, who owns a landscaping business. “I can take an alarm call and free up the sheriff’s office to respond to an emergency. Constables respond to calls as we can because we all have full-time jobs. I enjoyed being a police officer, but I didn’t make enough money. That’s why I ran for constable.”

Constables are not subject to the directives of the sheriff’s department, making the county reluctant to support them financially. The Garland County Quorum Court rejected their 2016 proposal for a $100 a month salary, explaining that providing even nominal compensation would make it liable for an office over which it has no authority.

The constables said being on the county payroll would qualify them for federal and state surplus equipment and entitle their beneficiaries to a larger payout should they be killed in the line of duty.