By Grusendorf                                         H.B. No. 2159
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to enforcement of a protective order by a constable.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 71.15(i), Family Code, is amended to read
    1-5  as follows:
    1-6        (i)  On the request of a person obtaining an order that
    1-7  excludes another person from the other person's residence, the
    1-8  court that granted the order may order the sheriff, constable, or
    1-9  chief of police to provide a law enforcement officer <from the
   1-10  department of the sheriff or the chief of police>:
   1-11              (1)  to accompany the person obtaining the order to the
   1-12  residence covered by the order;
   1-13              (2)  to protect the person obtaining the order while
   1-14  the person takes possession of the residence; and
   1-15              (3)  if the person obtaining the order is unable to
   1-16  take possession of the residence because the person being excluded
   1-17  occupies the residence, to inform the person being excluded that
   1-18  the court has ordered the person excluded from the residence.
   1-19        SECTION 2.  Sections 71.17(b) and (d), Family Code, are
   1-20  amended to read as follows:
   1-21        (b)  The clerk of the court issuing an original or modified
   1-22  protective order under this chapter shall send a copy of the order
   1-23  to the chief of police of the city where the member of the family
    2-1  or household protected by the order resides, if the person resides
    2-2  in a city, or to the appropriate constable and the sheriff of the
    2-3  county where the person resides, if the person does not reside in a
    2-4  city.
    2-5        (d)  The clerk of a court vacating an original or modified
    2-6  protective order under this chapter shall notify a constable, <the>
    2-7  chief of police, or sheriff who received a copy of the original or
    2-8  modified order that the order is vacated.
    2-9        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   2-10        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-11  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-12  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-13  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-14  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.