By Carona, et al.                                        H.B. No. 8
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to flight from or attempting to elude a police officer or
    1-3  evading arrest.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 24(a), Chapter 173, Acts of the 47th
    1-6  Legislature, Regular Session, 1941 (Article 6687b, Vernon's Texas
    1-7  Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
    1-8        (a)  Except as provided by Subsection (g) of this Section,
    1-9  the license of any person shall be automatically suspended upon
   1-10  final conviction of:
   1-11              (1)  an offense under Section 19.07, Penal Code,
   1-12  committed as a result of the person's criminally negligent
   1-13  operation of a motor vehicle;
   1-14              (2)  an offense under Section 19.05(a)(2), Penal Code;
   1-15              (3)  an offense under Article 6701l-1, Revised
   1-16  Statutes;
   1-17              (4)  an offense punishable as a felony under the motor
   1-18  vehicle laws of this State;
   1-19              (5)  an offense under Section 38, Uniform Act
   1-20  Regulating Traffic on Highways (Article 6701d, Vernon's Texas Civil
   1-21  Statutes); <or>
   1-22              (6)  an offense under Section 32 or 32A of this Act; or
   1-23              (7)  an offense under Section 38.04(a), Penal Code, if
   1-24  the person operated a motor vehicle during the commission of the
    2-1  offense.
    2-2        SECTION 2.  Chapter 2, Code of Criminal Procedure, is amended
    2-3  by adding Article 2.131 to read as follows:
    2-4        Art. 2.131.  Notwithstanding the provisions of Article 2.13
    2-5  of this code, a peace officer may not be required to operate a
    2-6  motor vehicle in a manner clearly dangerous to public safety while
    2-7  pursuing an individual who is fleeing the officer in a motor
    2-8  vehicle and whom the officer suspects of committing only the
    2-9  offense of theft of a motor vehicle or unauthorized use of a motor
   2-10  vehicle.
   2-11        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.  The
   2-12  changes in law made by this Act apply only to offenses committed on
   2-13  or after that date.  An offense committed before the effective date
   2-14  of this Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was
   2-15  committed, and the former law is continued in effect for that
   2-16  purpose.  For purposes of this section, an offense was committed
   2-17  before the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense
   2-18  occurred before that date.
   2-19        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-20  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-21  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
   2-22  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-23  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.