By Siebert                                            H.B. No. 2055
       74R6751 MLR-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to licensing of certain persons as peace officers.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 415, Government Code, is
    1-5  amended by adding Section 415.0525 to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 415.0525.  LICENSING OF CERTAIN RETIRED MILITARY POLICE
    1-7  OFFICERS.  (a)  The commission shall waive training and other
    1-8  requirements for obtaining a license under this chapter and grant a
    1-9  license to a person who applies for a license not less than 24
   1-10  months after the date the person retired from active military
   1-11  service and who:
   1-12              (1)  has not less than 20 years of experience as a
   1-13  police officer in the United States military service;
   1-14              (2)  has been honorably discharged from military
   1-15  service;
   1-16              (3)  has demonstrated weapons proficiency to a military
   1-17  authority in the 24 months preceding the person's application for a
   1-18  license to the commission; and
   1-19              (4)  has a postgraduate degree or training:
   1-20                    (A)  in public or business administration or
   1-21  management;
   1-22                    (B)  from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's
   1-23  National Academy; or
   1-24                    (C)  from a police or corrections institute
    2-1  administered by an institution of higher education in the United
    2-2  States.
    2-3        (b)  The commission shall license a person under this section
    2-4  at the highest level of license that the commission offers and
    2-5  corresponds to the person's experience and qualifications.
    2-6        (c)  A person licensed under this section is not exempt from
    2-7  the continuing education requirements of this chapter.
    2-8        SECTION 2.  (a)  The governmental acts and proceedings of a
    2-9  municipality in employing or appointing a person as police chief
   2-10  who meets the requirements of Section 415.0525, Government Code, as
   2-11  added by this Act, but who did not have the applicable license
   2-12  issued by the Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and
   2-13  Education before the effective date of this Act, are validated as
   2-14  of the date they occurred.  The acts and proceedings may not be
   2-15  held invalid because they were not performed in accordance with law
   2-16  or the rules of the Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards
   2-17  and Education.
   2-18        (b)  The Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and
   2-19  Education shall immediately issue an appropriate license to a
   2-20  person who meets the requirements of Section 415.0525, Government
   2-21  Code, as added by this Act, other than requirements related to the
   2-22  time at which a person makes an application to the commission for a
   2-23  license, under Section 415.0525(a), Government Code, as added by
   2-24  this Act, and who was appointed or employed as a police chief by a
   2-25  municipality before the effective date of this Act, but who did not
   2-26  have the applicable license issued by the commission before the
   2-27  effective date of this Act.
    3-1        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-2  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-3  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-4  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-5  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    3-6  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    3-7  passage, and it is so enacted.