By:  Eckels                                           H.B. No. 2213
       73R5732 JRD-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the circumstances in which a Department of Public
    1-3  Safety commissioned officer may wear the officer's state-issued
    1-4  uniform during off-duty employment.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Section 411.0077, Government Code, is amended to
    1-7  read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 411.0077.  Limitation on Restrictions on Certain
    1-9  Off-Duty Activities.  (a)  During the period that the officer is
   1-10  off duty, a commissioned officer of the department is entitled to
   1-11  attend educational programs or courses or to engage in any off-duty
   1-12  <outside> employment that does not adversely affect the operations
   1-13  or the reputation of the department.  The officer is entitled to
   1-14  wear the officer's state-issued uniform during the off-duty
   1-15  employment if that does not adversely affect the operations or the
   1-16  reputation of the department.   The rights of a commissioned
   1-17  officer under this section are subject to any reasonable department
   1-18  requirements that the officer be accessible to the department
   1-19  during off-duty periods for the possible performance of official
   1-20  duties.
   1-21        (b)  The department shall adopt reasonable guidelines
   1-22  relating to acceptable:
   1-23              (1)  off-duty employment;
   1-24              (2)  off-duty employment during which the officer may
    2-1  wear the officer's state-issued uniform; and
    2-2              (3)  standards of behavior when the officer is wearing
    2-3  the officer's state-issued uniform during off-duty employment.
    2-4        (c)  If an officer is engaged in off-duty employment or
    2-5  wearing the officer's state-issued uniform during the employment
    2-6  when that is not prohibited by a specific guideline adopted under
    2-7  Subsection (b), the officer is authorized to engage in the off-duty
    2-8  employment or wear the officer's state-issued uniform during the
    2-9  off-duty employment until the director or his designee informs the
   2-10  officer in writing that the employment is not acceptable or that
   2-11  wearing a state-issued uniform during the employment is not
   2-12  acceptable.
   2-13        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-14  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-15  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-16  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-17  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-18  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-19  passage, and it is so enacted.