‘Constables on Patrol’: Discovery Special Exposes Hidden World of Debt Collecting Cops

Discovery Channel is bringing viewers another side of law enforcement through Constables on Patrol. The new Discovery Channel special, which premieres Tuesday, March 11, follows elected officers in Pennsylvania as they take on intense and often risky undercover schemes to serve warrants and get paid. 

As seen in the exclusive teaser shown above, these “people’s cops” use unique tactics to get the job done, including using a pizza delivery guy and Frank Sinatra lookalike as bait to help them serve warrants. It’s the latest project from Magilla Entertainment, which has given us shows including Theresa Caputo Raising Spirits and Moonshiners, Here EP Matthew Ostrom, company co-founder, gives us intel on the project and his hopes for it leading to a series. 

I know you’ve worked an eclectic mix of shows in the past. How did this special come together? 

Matthew Ostrom: We’re always looking for worlds people don’t know or know exist. Hidden worlds. The world of constables was just one of those universes I don’t think people knew existed. They are officers of the court. They are not in every state. They are only in a handful of states. They are the oldest law enforcement agency in the United States. They started in 1664 when they were established. They were the original law enforcement of America. There was just something really interesting about that. When you think of a constable, you think about a person in an old type of outfit and maybe a white wig. It couldn’t be anything further from the truth. 

They are the officers of the court. They go out and serve warrants. They are actually allowed to be at polling stations. They also just do a lot of work in the community. They are elected by the people they serve. There is something incredibly democratic about that. The way they are paid is to go out and enforce warrants and collect a fee on the warrant they enforce. That’s how they make their money. They also integrate and help the communities. If police need help, they will sometimes call in a constable. Some, in very rural areas, there is not a ton of law enforcement to cover a large area of land. The local police in these areas might not have the bandwidth to handle certain things. The constables will help.

Connellsville Constables Hubie Coleman and “Rocky” Albert Youngkin at a lake scene. (Discovery Channel)

Tell me about the focus of the show? 

We focused on their enforcement of warrants and sometimes what seems like, I don’t want to say unorthodox, but different. Serving a warrant, you’re going into a house and really don’t know what is on the other side of the door. It’s a very dangerous and scary thing to do. Our constables will survey the property or place they are serving the warrant and go get the person. It’s very dangerous work. It’s much safer for someone to come out of a house as opposed to going in. 

Some of our constables use outside-the-box ways to get people to come back on their own. We filmed a scenario where one of our groups, Hubie [Coleman] and “Rocky” [Albert Youngkin], who are notorious for their tricks in getting people to come out. There was a woman they had been following who had a history of writing bad checks. There were warrants for her. They hired a Frank Sinatra impersonator because they knew she liked his music. The Frank Sinatra lookalike was singing in the front yard. That got her to come out of the yard to say, “What’s going on here?” They were able to serve her with a warrant. We did another scenario where they were delivering pizza and the person came to the door, and they were able to serve them a warrant.

Why Pennsylvania? 

There is just a great variety of landscape. You go from the city in Philly to the rural communities outside of Pittsburgh. There is the diversity of people and stories. That was why we settled on Pennsylvania. When we were doing our outreach, we found a few constables in Pennsylvania like Hubie and Rocky. They are fun, fantastic characters.Then you start to think you can build a show around these guys. Then we think about who else is in this community. We found the Bentons, who were a husband, wife and daughter team. They are more in the middle of the state. They also do prisoner transports as well as court work. We found other constables who were doing work going in and out of Philadelphia. Paul [Castline] and Chris Lee and so we that seemed really interesting. Dennis Wert, who works in Harrisburg. 

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This is being billed as a special. Is there a potential for a series? 

This is not a one and done. There is one thousand percent potential for more. There are so many stories to tell. Every warrant has a different story to tell and the person behind it. There is always an adventure to be found here. You never know what you’re going to get when you open the door. We feel like there is a whole universe here. The vision is to build this one around Pennsylvania. Then you can go into Massachusetts, Kentucky and elsewhere. It would be great to go into different states with different teams. 

What do you want to say to viewers before this? 

I’m hoping viewers take from this that it’s incredibly dangerous work. They are the debt collectors for the courts. They put their lives on the line. They are all hard-working individuals. I’m hoping audiences connect with these guys and also get a kick out of some of the techniques and tactics they use to serve warrants. It’s a great mix of drama and adrenaline with some unorthodox, unexpected cleverness. 

Constables on Patrol Premiere, March 11, 9/8c, Discovery Channel