Harris County constables to earn $305K, more than U.S. vice president 40%
By John Lomax V53%
8/6/2026, 4:02:44 PM
Keywords: Texas Legislature, Spring, J D, Sam Harless, Rodney Ellis, Lina Hidalgo, Ken Paxton, Abbie Kamin, Adrian Garcia, Hidalgo, R, Harris County, United States, Vance, Precinct 4, Texas, 305k
BS Summary: This article contains 19 faulty reasoning types, including Post Hoc (False Cause), Ambiguity (Equivocation), and Recency Bias, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 22.4% saturation with 95 hits. Analysis detected 535 faulty-reasoning hits from 424 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 37.6% and a BS Rank of 40% (18,402 of 30,584 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 60.20% of the article peer group.
Harris County's eight elected constables will soon make more than U.S.
Vice President J.D.
Vance.
Commissioners Court voted Thursday 4-1 to increase the constables' salaries to $305,000, the fourth in a series of raises that have more than doubled their pay in just three years.
The constables have significant political power, in part because they are immensely popular with the many neighborhoods they patrol on dedicated contracts, and they have influence in the Texas Legislature.
Some of the constables have even wielded the threat of adverse legislation to pressure some commissioners to give them more funding and autonomy.
Now, they're set to receive some of the highest pay of any elected official countywide, despite half of the constable precincts employing fewer than 200 staff.
The largest constable office, Precinct 4 in north Harris County, employed roughly 750 staff as of the county's 2025 fiscal year, records show.
The sheriff's office, meanwhile, manages more than 5,000 employees across its law enforcement, civilian and jail operations.
None of the eight constables attended Thursday's meeting.
County Judge Lina Hidalgo voted against the increases, as did Commissioner Rodney Ellis, initially.
Ellis later changed his vote to support the raises after commissioners agreed to potentially provide identical increases to other elected officials, including the district and county attorneys.
The raises do not take effect until they are formally approved as part of the budget process in September.
"It's an unbelievable number, percentage-wise, that we're giving to these politically influential elected officials," Hidalgo said.
The pay hikes come nearly a year after state Rep.
Sam Harless, R-Spring, argued in a letter to the Texas attorney general that Harris County’s elected constables should receive the same salary as the sheriff.
Harless' letter referenced a bill he authored that the Texas Legislature passed last year mandating that pay increases to any Harris County law enforcement agency -- such as the sheriff's office, constables or fire marshal -- be distributed equally across all other agencies.
The bill exempts "the chief of the department," however, and defines a police officer as an "employee," which the chapter of state law Harless' bill modified distinguishes from elected and appointed officials.
Harless also withdrew his letter without a ruling from Attorney General Ken Paxton.
But Commissioner Adrian Garcia on Thursday said "part of" the motivation behind the raises stemmed from Harless' bill.
County Attorney Abbie Kamin later clarified that the raises were not "necessarily required under state law," but that they were "recommended and agreed to."
Speakers
4speakers20%attributed speech341writer words
Selected voice
100%flagged-word coverageLina Hidalgo
16 attributed words19% of attributed speech80% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
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