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What Happened — and Why We're Fighting

On June 17, 2026, an en banc Superior Court held 8–1 in Commonwealth v. Wiggs, 2026 PA Super 126, that a constable's vehicle is not a "police vehicle" under 75 Pa.C.S. §§ 102 and 4571. We respectfully disagree. The decision treats Pennsylvania's oldest elected law enforcement officers as something less than the police officers the statutes already make them — one more move in a steady, concerted effort to narrow the authority of officers the people themselves put into office.

Section 102 defines a "police officer" as a person whose authority to arrest is conferred by law. That is precisely what sets constables apart. Pennsylvania has other directly-elected officers who enforce the law — sheriffs are elected too — but constables are the only directly-elected officers whose arrest authority is statutory rather than merely common-law. Constables alone are both elected and statutory police. Judge Stabile said as much in dissent, and his reasoning is our north star.

So we are not accepting this quietly. We are pursuing a Petition for Allowance of Appeal to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and we are asking the General Assembly to amend 75 Pa.C.S. § 4571(b)(1) to say plainly what the law already implies: that a constable's vehicle is a police vehicle. You can help with both.

There is also a timely opening in Harrisburg. House Bill 2479, sponsored by Rep. Dan Goughnour, would amend the Vehicle Code to authorize emergency lights on the vehicles of armed county probation officers — and it advanced out of the House Transportation Committee in June 2026. If the General Assembly is ready to recognize the safety and visibility needs of probation officers, it should extend the same recognition to the Commonwealth's directly-elected constables, who are already authorized by statute to direct traffic on our roads (75 Pa.C.S. § 3102). We are asking legislators to include constables in this bill, or in a companion amendment to § 4571(b)(1).

There is a second ask, and it is about staying alive. Serving arrest warrants is a statutory constable duty, and the people named on those warrants are frequently wanted for violent crimes. A constable’s safety depends on knowing who that person is and who they run with. An unfamiliar car in the driveway of a house a constable is about to approach may belong to someone with a violent record, which is a lethal risk to the constable and to everyone else on that street. Constables cannot run either check. That information lives in NCIC, and Pennsylvania reaches NCIC through CLEAN, a system the State Police run. Access requires an ORI, and the State Police have repeatedly refused to issue constables one. Their own published CLEAN regulations set the test for full access as the definition of a “criminal justice agency” in 18 Pa.C.S. § 9102, and state no training requirement and no certification requirement. County Children and Youth caseworkers and domestic violence judges already hold that access. Neither makes arrests. We are asking the General Assembly to name constables expressly in the list of criminal justice agencies in § 9102. It is one line of statute.

Read the full case & dissent

Step 1: Find Your Representatives

The fastest, most durable fix is legislative. Tell your state representative and senator to amend 75 Pa.C.S. § 4571(b)(1) to expressly include constable vehicles, and to amend 18 Pa.C.S. § 9102 so constables can run the wanted-and-stolen checks their safety depends on. Start by finding the two legislators who answer to you.