By: Hamric H.B. No. 1961
73R3301 MLR-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to indefinite suspensions of police officers and fire
1-3 fighters in certain municipalities.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 143.1017(h), Local Government Code, is
1-6 amended to read as follows:
1-7 (h) The department head may order an indefinite suspension
1-8 based on an act classified as a felony or any other crime involving
1-9 moral turpitude after the 180-day period following the date of the
1-10 discovery of the act by the department if the department head
1-11 considers delay to be necessary to protect a criminal investigation
1-12 of the person's conduct. If the department head intends to order
1-13 an indefinite suspension after the 180-day period, the department
1-14 head must file with the attorney general a statement describing the
1-15 criminal investigation and its objectives within 180 days after the
1-16 date of the discovery by the department of the act <complained of
1-17 occurred>.
1-18 SECTION 2. Section 143.119(g), Local Government Code, is
1-19 amended to read as follows:
1-20 (g) In the original written statement and charges and in any
1-21 hearing conducted under this chapter, the department head may not
1-22 complain, except as provided by Section 143.1017, of an act that
1-23 the department head first discovered or became aware of before the
1-24 180th day <did not occur within the six-month period> preceding the
2-1 date on which the department head suspends the fire fighter or
2-2 police officer.
2-3 SECTION 3. The changes in law made by this Act relating to
2-4 the time of discovery or occurrence of an act committed by a fire
2-5 fighter or police officer that may form the basis for an indefinite
2-6 suspension of the fire fighter or police officer do not apply to an
2-7 indefinite suspension ordered before the effective date of this
2-8 Act, and the law relating to the time of discovery or occurrence of
2-9 the act in effect on the date the suspension was ordered is
2-10 continued in effect for matters relating to those suspensions.
2-11 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
2-12 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-13 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-14 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-15 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-16 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-17 passage, and it is so enacted.