By:  Wilson                                           H.B. No. 1363
       73R5639 LJD-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to security at certain shopping centers; providing a
    1-3  penalty.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter D, Chapter 35, Business & Commerce
    1-6  Code, is amended by adding Section 35.43 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 35.43.  SHOPPING CENTER SECURITY.  (a)  The manager of a
    1-8  shopping center with a total amount of store space of 10,000 square
    1-9  feet or more shall employ one or more security guards to guard the
   1-10  parking lot or garage and other public areas of the shopping
   1-11  center.  A guard or guards must be on duty during the hours when
   1-12  shoppers are commonly present at the shopping center and
   1-13  continuously during the period beginning 15 minutes before the
   1-14  first store in the shopping center opens for business and ending 15
   1-15  minutes after the last store in the shopping center closes.
   1-16        (b)  A manager who violates this section commits an offense.
   1-17  An offense under this section is a Class B misdemeanor.
   1-18        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   1-19        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-20  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-21  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-22  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-23  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.