That’s My Job: Burnet County Constable Missy Bindseil

Burnet County Precinct 4 Constable Missy Bindseil is an elected law enforcement officer for south and southeast Burnet County, covering parts of Marble Falls and Spicewood. She also works for the Justice of the Peace Court in her precinct, acting as bailiff and serving warrants, restraining orders, and other papers.As a constable, she has the same duties as a city officer or county deputy; however, she answers to the voters, making community connections a central aspect of the job.

Bindseil began her career in the justice system in 1992 as a parole officer in Bell County. She decided she could have a bigger impact on the community as a police officer, so, in 1997, she joined the Temple Police Department. She moved to Burnet County in 2008, where she began work in the sheriff’s office as a deputy and dispatcher. She was appointed constable in December 2016 and elected to the position in 2018. She is unopposed in the November 3 general election for her first full four-year term. 

“Each constable’s office has the discretion to create its own mission,” Bindseil told The Picayune Magazine. 

Here is what else she had to say about her job as an elected official who wears a gun. 

MISSY BINDSEIL

Burnet County Precinct 4 constable

WE ARE LAW ENFORCEMENT, not lawmaker. Nor are we the prosecutors, and we are not the judges. We are peace officers. We enforce the laws that are written by others and report violations to the prosecutors and judges. 

I KNEW IT WOULD BE AN ADVENTURE. Back then (1997), the east side of Temple was like the Wild West, and you better be on top of the game or you weren’t coming home in the same condition as you left that day. We had gangs, shootings, drugs, prostitution, and Interstate 35, but we also had the backing of the community and the department. The town was not bad at all, but there were just a few that chose not to obey the law — a lot.

I WAS LUCKY and got to do a lot of things most do not. The one thing that some people find a surprise was working undercover as an escort and prostitute for a year and a half while still working my normal position at Temple. Very few people even knew about it, and the case agent managed it masterfully. He was able to secure seven convictions and dismantle a major organized crime ring in the Bell County area when, back then, he was told it was impossible. After working undercover in the sex industry, very little surprised me from then on.

SOME PEOPLE WANT TO KILL US. When you leave home, a real fact of this job is you may not go back home, ever. This is not a video game. This is not a movie or TV show. This is real.

COPS ARE PEOPLE, TOO. We pay bills, have families, have houses, our kids have functions, just like everyone else. I am so sorry there are some that just ruin it for the rest of us. If I could fix it, I would in a hot minute, and there are countless others who feel the same. (The bad ones) infuriate me. We are not them, period. And for those who get in this line of work just because they think it’s cool to wear a gun, wear a uniform, drive a patrol unit, take people to jail, etc., please go find something else to do, please. This is not what you think it is. Please go somewhere else.

FOR THOSE WHO ARE WILLING to lay their life down for someone they have never met; to miss family occasions; to work nights, weekends, and in bad weather; watch someone’s child die; hold someone as they just lost a loved one; be compassionate when you really do not understand why; go check on that person no one has heard from; change someone’s tire when it is 107 degrees; be able to tune it out when they call you the worst names imaginable; and not get paid enough and still have high integrity all because you want to make this world a better place for others and you know if you don’t, who will, we welcome you. That’s who we want; “we” as in our communities and the law enforcement community. 

daniel@thepicayune.com