Tullos, 123075 MSAGO, 1975-0019

• Case Date: December 30, 1975
• Court: Mississippi

Honorable Gene C. Tullos No. 1975-0019 Mississippi Attorney General Opinions December 30, 1975          Honorable Gene C. Tullos          Tullos & Tullos          Attorneys at Law          P. O. Box 74          Raleigh, Mississippi 39153          Dear Gene:          Attorney General Summer has received your letter of request dated November 20, 1975, and has assigned it to me for reply. Your inquiry is restated as follows:

         If a State Highway divides two beats, does the Constable of the beat located on the north side of the road have jurisdiction over the south one half of the dividing highway?

         This is a difficult inquiry to answer directly because it is a general one which could conceivably encompass a multitude of factual situations. We can, therefore, only offer some guidelines suggested by case law and statutory authority which we think might be helpful in resolving the specific issues you have in mind.          First of all, the Mississippi Supreme Court held in the case of Rilev v. James, 73 Miss. 1, 18 So. 930 (1895), that a constable's executive power is limited to the district for which he is elected. In a similar vein it was stated in Boutwell v. Gravson, 118 Miss. 80, 79 So. 61 (1918), that a constable cannot go beyond the confines of his district to serve process.          [SEE ALSO Article 6, Section 171 of the Mississippi Constitution and section 19-19-5, Mississippi Code 1972 Annotated (1973)] It is clear, therefore, that a constable's executive authority is generally coterminous with the beat or district lines of the supervisor's district for which he is elected.          A constable's authority to make arrests is found in sections 99-3-1 and 99-3-3, Mississippi Code 1972 Annotated (1973). A constable may at any time arrest persons anywhere in the county who are committing crimes in his presence, or to prevent a breach of the peace. Shinall v. State, 199 So.2d 251 (Miss. 1967) . SEE ALSO Nash v. State, 207 So.2d 104 (Miss. 1968), which held that where officers had probable cause to believe that a felony had been committed and that the defendant was the...