By:  Patterson                                         S.B. No. 711
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to prohibiting employment discrimination against certain
    1-2  peace officers and fire fighters for refusing to take a polygraph
    1-3  examination.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  (a)  A fire fighter or peace officer may not be
    1-6  required to submit to a polygraph examination as part of an
    1-7  internal investigation regarding the conduct of the fire fighter or
    1-8  peace officer unless:
    1-9              (1)  the complainant submits to a polygraph examination
   1-10  and no deception is indicated regarding matters critical to the
   1-11  subject matter under investigation or the results of the
   1-12  examination are inconclusive; or
   1-13              (2)  the fire fighter or peace officer is ordered to
   1-14  take an examination under Subsection (d) or (e) of this section.
   1-15        (b)  Subdivision (1) of Subsection (a) of this section does
   1-16  not apply if the complainant is mentally incapable of being
   1-17  polygraphed.
   1-18        (c)  The results of a polygraph examination that relate to
   1-19  the complaint or issue under investigation are admissible in a
   1-20  proceeding before a regulatory authority hearing the complaint
   1-21  only:
   1-22              (1)  to corroborate other statements or evidence; or
   1-23              (2)  with the consent of the officer subject to the
    2-1  process.
    2-2        (d)  A department head may order a fire fighter or peace
    2-3  officer to submit to a polygraph examination if the department head
    2-4  considers the circumstances to be extraordinary, the department
    2-5  head believes that the integrity of the fire fighter or peace
    2-6  officer is in question, and the department head submits to the fire
    2-7  fighter or peace officer being investigated a written explanation
    2-8  of the nature of the extraordinary circumstances.
    2-9        (e)  A fire fighter or peace officer may be required to
   2-10  submit to a polygraph examination if the complaint is confined to
   2-11  internal operations, the complainant is an employee of the
   2-12  department, and there is prima facie evidence that the complaint is
   2-13  valid.
   2-14        SECTION 2.  This Act does not apply to a peace officer:
   2-15              (1)  to whom Section 411.007, Government Code, and its
   2-16  subsequent amendments apply; or
   2-17              (2)  who has been ordered to take a polygraph
   2-18  examination under Section 143.124, Local Government Code, and its
   2-19  subsequent amendments.
   2-20        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-21  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-22  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-23  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-24  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-25  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    3-1  passage, and it is so enacted.