By:  Parker                                            S.B. No. 174
       73R1032 JRD-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to requiring training in constitutional law as a
    1-3  prerequisite for a peace officer license granted by the Commission
    1-4  on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Section 415.031, Government Code, is amended by
    1-7  adding Subsection (e) to read as follows:
    1-8        (e)  The commission shall include instruction in
    1-9  constitutional law in a peace officer training program under
   1-10  Subsection (a) and shall require a person seeking a peace officer
   1-11  license to have received training in constitutional law that is
   1-12  equivalent to three college semester hours instruction in
   1-13  constitutional law.  The constitutional law training requirement
   1-14  may be satisfied either through a peace officer training program
   1-15  under Subsection (a) or through other formal training that the
   1-16  commission determines to be equivalent to three college semester
   1-17  hours.
   1-18        SECTION 2.  Section 415.031(e), Government Code, as added by
   1-19  this Act, applies only to a peace officer license granted or
   1-20  renewed by the Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and
   1-21  Education on or after the effective date of this Act, and does not
   1-22  affect the validity of a license in effect on the effective date of
   1-23  this Act.
   1-24        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-1  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-2  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-3  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-4  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-5  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-6  passage, and it is so enacted.