By Gray                                                H.B. No. 292
       74R1842 CAG-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the power of a county to provide for the public safety
    1-3  by enacting a juvenile curfew; providing a penalty.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter Z, Chapter 351, Local Government Code,
    1-6  is amended by adding Section 351.903 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 351.903.  JUVENILE CURFEW ORDER.  (a)  To provide for
    1-8  the public safety, the commissioners court of a county by order may
    1-9  adopt a curfew applying to the unincorporated area of a county to
   1-10  regulate the movements or actions of persons under the age of 17.
   1-11        (b)  This authority includes the authority to:
   1-12              (1)  establish the hours of the curfew, including
   1-13  different hours for different days of the week;
   1-14              (2)  apply different curfew hours to different age
   1-15  groups of juveniles;
   1-16              (3)  describe the kinds of conduct subject to the
   1-17  curfew;
   1-18              (4)  determine the locations to which the curfew
   1-19  applies;
   1-20              (5)  determine which persons incur liability if a
   1-21  violation of the curfew occurs;
   1-22              (6)  prescribe procedures a police officer or other
   1-23  person must follow in enforcing the curfew; and
   1-24              (7)  establish exemptions from the curfew.
    2-1        (c)  A person commits an offense if the person violates a
    2-2  restriction or prohibition imposed by an order adopted under this
    2-3  section.  An offense under this subsection is a Class C
    2-4  misdemeanor.
    2-5        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-6  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-7  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-8  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-9  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-10  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-11  passage, and it is so enacted.