BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 2650

By: Howard

Homeland Security & Public Safety

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The Sexual Assault Survivors' Task Force was established in 2019 with an ambitious goal to establish a survivor-centered, trauma-informed, collaborative, and coordinated response to sexual violence experienced by adults and children in Texas. The task force steering committee includes the Office of the Governor, the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, and the Children's Advocacy Centers of Texas. Over the last four years the task force has worked with stakeholders across the state to transform sexual assault policy in Texas.

The task force's Law Enforcement Working Group reviews best practices and makes policy recommendations for officer training, resource availability, and investigation of sexual assault and other sex offenses. The members of the working group are law enforcement officers and stakeholders from across Texas. Currently, the basic peace officer training provided by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement only includes child abuse and neglect, family violence, and sexual assault and does not address the unique differences and experiences of adult sexual assault survivors. Among their recommendations to the 88th Texas Legislature, the task force recommends a change in peace officer training, a recommendation which was approved by the law enforcement working group. Specifically, the task force recommended the legislature add instruction related to a trauma-informed approach to child sexual abuse and adult sexual assault investigations to the basic peace officer course. C.S.H.B. 2650 seeks to implement this recommendation, among others.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 2650 amends the Government Code to make the Sexual Assault Survivors' Task Force permanent by removing the provision setting the task force to expire September 1, 2023. The bill makes statutory provisions governing state agency advisory committees inapplicable to the composition or duration of the task force or to the designation of the task force's presiding officer.

C.S.H.B. 2650 amends the Occupations Code to require the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE), in consultation with that task force and not later than January 1, 2024, to establish a basic education and training program on responding to reports of child sexual abuse and adult sexual assault, including the use of best practices and trauma-informed response techniques to effectively recognize, investigate, and document such cases. The bill requires the training program to consist of at least eight instructional hours and requires TCOLE, as part of the minimum curriculum requirements for peace officer training schools, to require an officer to complete the program not later than the last day of the first full continuing education training period after the date the officer is licensed unless the officer completes the program as part of the officer's basic training course. That curriculum completion requirement applies only to an officer who first begins to satisfy those requirements on or after January 1, 2024.

C.S.H.B. 2650 requires TCOLE to require an officer to complete the training program on responding to sexual abuse or assault unless the officer has completed the training as part of their school curriculum or other training equivalent to the training program as determined by TCOLE.

C.S.H.B. 2650 repeals Section 1701.253(b-2), Occupations Code.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2023.

COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 2650 may differ from the introduced in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

While the substitute retains the requirement in the introduced for TCOLE to require an officer to complete the training program unless the officer has completed the training as part of their school curriculum or other training equivalent to the training program, the substitute omits the specification from the introduced that this requirement is to be implemented by TCOLE rule.

The substitute changes the deadline for an officer to complete the training program from the second anniversary of the date the officer is licensed, as in the introduced, to the last day of the first full continuing education training period after that licensure date. The substitute changes the procedural provision in the introduced establishing that the curriculum completion requirements apply only to a person who submits an application for a peace officer license on or after January 1, 2024, to establish that the curriculum completion requirements apply only to an officer who first begins to satisfy those requirements on or after that date.