Several law enforcement agencies protect the citizens of Titus County.
The Titus County Sheriff's Department was organized when the county was created in 1845.
When the City of Mount Pleasant was incorporated in 1900, one of the first things citizens did was to elect John B. Stephens, Sr. as its first City Marshal. A City Marshal continued to maintain law and order in Mount Pleasant from 1900 until 1949, when the Mt. Pleasant Police Department was established with Willie T. Harris as its first Chief of Police. The Mount Pleasant Police Department is Titus County's oldest and only continuously operating police department.
Titus County has two constables who provide warrant service for the county's Justice of the Peace Courts. Unfortunately, we could not locate enough information to properly cover the history of the Titus County constables. Should we discover enough information to be able to create a topic for the constables, we will add it in a future update.
Though not Titus County officers, the Texas Department of Public Safety has stationed troopers in Mt. Pleasant since 1931.
A Texas Ranger, which is now a division of the Texas Department of Public Safety, is based in Mt. Pleasant and assists law officers in Titus and surounding counties with major crime investigations.
Likewise, Texas Alcoholic Beverage Control officers have been stationed in Mt. Pleasant for many years. Their job is to seek out bootleggers and moonshiners and to enforce liquor laws as they pertain to the operation of private clubs that serve alcoholic beverages.
Several of links below open an new section consisting of several pages of information about the named law enforcement agency. Click a blue link for more information about the listed law enforcement agency or subject.
Nice Doggie --
Nobody said criminals had to be smart, did they?
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Friday, June 21, 1935
PURSUING BLOODHOUND WAS ADOPTED BY BANDITS AS PET
Willow Springs, Mo., June 20 - A man and a woman, bandit suspects who mistook a pursuing bloodhound for a coon dog and adopted it as a pet, were being held Thursday for the police of Poplar Bluff, Mo., where they are wanted for questioning in a night club holdup.
The pair, identified as Marguerite Miller of Dewey, Ok., and Bill Stiles of Oxlesby, Ok., were arrested after a day and night search as they entered a restaurant at Pomona, Mo. The bloodhound, one of several that had been put on their trail, was trotting good-naturedly at their heels.
Stiles told highway troopers that the dog overtook them during the night, but that he thought "it was only some farmer's coon dog and we just took him along, friendly-like." Another bloodhound lost in the chase was found walking along a highway.
Highway Patrol Sergrant Nathan Massie said Stiles admitted he was a companion of Lee Allen of Dewey, who was killed Wednesday in an encounter with officers here. The trio was said to be wanted at Bartlesville, Ok., and Russel, Kan., on armed robbery charges.
