HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania's chief justice said Tuesday that he is considering whether to impose uniform standards to improve the state's troubled constable system.

Chief Justice Ronald Castille told The Associated Press that he has directed the court's Minor Court Rules Committee to study a handbook for constables currently used in Chester County to see if it can be adopted statewide.

"That's something we're looking into without having to go through legislation, or constitutional amendments or anything of that nature," Castille said.

Pennsylvania has about 1,200 active constables — fully trained and insured — who serve legal papers, transport prisoners and perform other duties for magisterial district courts.

Shortcomings in their training and oversight were identified in a two-part series by The Associated Press in July that described dozens of cases of serious misconduct by constables over the past decade.

Chester County is one of the few Pennsylvania counties that maintains a handbook for constables.

Castille distributed the county's guidelines within the past week. If the committee's report is favorable and it is adopted, the president judges of each county could end up having to enforce it.

"If we were to do the statewide handbook, they would still be independent contractors but the president judge would be able to discipline them," said Castille. He said the court would also seek input from the constables, trial judges and district judges before adopting a new system.

In another indication that changes may be ahead, a key state lawmaker met last week with officers of the state constables' association about his strategy for pursuing reform.

Rep. Tom Caltagirone, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the "first round in probably a 10-round fight" will be to collect in a single code the elements of various state laws that deal with constables.

"The next step really would be to meet with somebody from the Supreme Court — preferably the chief justice — to see if they would consider taking them under their wing and allow the president judges from each county to be responsible for them," said Caltagirone, D-Berks.