Harris Co. deputy constable accused of improperly dropping off intoxicated man at a gas station
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Harris County Pct. 4 is responding to a law enforcement report that its deputies are trained to drop off homeless people away from areas they're paid to patrol.
Eyewitness News obtained a Harris County Sheriff's Office incident report that says a Precinct 4 deputy constable picked up an intoxicated man who had urinated on himself at a bank and then dropped him off at a gas station three miles away.
The gas station is located at the corner of FM 1960 and I-45 which is inside HCSO jurisdiction. A man who works as a security guard in the area says he's seen it happen more than once and has a picture of it.
In the report, the HCSO deputy wrote that the deputy constable "stated he was trained to drop off individuals at the intersection that were homeless for metropolitan transportation."
However, the man in question never made it to the bus. In fact, a driver called HCSO, concerned he was going to get run over. The security guard, who asked to remain anonymous, told Eyewitness News the man was in pretty bad shape.
"The guy had urine on him. He was intoxicated and he also had a gash in the back of his head. He (the deputy constable) didn't want to deal with the problem. There was a problem and he got rid of it. We don't need constables to be handing off their problems," the security guard told Eyewitness News.
In response to what's written in the report, Constable Mark Herman's Office says its deputy "did not say that to the sheriff's deputy" and "no, it is not a policy nor common practice or training."
A spokesman for the Harris County Sheriff's Office emailed, "We are unable to comment beyond what's written in the documents you received. C4 is an independently run law enforcement agency with its own elected constable and we are not in a position to comment on that agency's policies and procedures."
