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.