By Talton                                             H.B. No. 2739
       74R7715 PEP-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to airport police and security for certain municipalities
    1-3  and political subdivisions.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 1, Chapter 7, Acts of the 63rd
    1-6  Legislature, Regular Session, 1973 (Article 46g, Vernon's Texas
    1-7  Civil Statutes), is amended by amending Subsection (a) and adding
    1-8  Subsection (e) to read as follows:
    1-9        (a)  The governing body of any political subdivision of this
   1-10  state that operates an airport <served by a Civil Aeronautics Board
   1-11  certificated air carrier> may establish an airport security force
   1-12  and employ airport security personnel.
   1-13        (e)  This Act applies only to:
   1-14              (1)  a political subdivision other than a municipality;
   1-15  and
   1-16              (2)  a municipality with a population of less than
   1-17  900,000.
   1-18        SECTION 2.  Title 3A, Revised Statutes, is amended by adding
   1-19  Article 46g-1 to read as follows:
   1-20        Art. 46g-1.  AIRPORT POLICE OFFICERS FOR MUNICIPALITY WITH
   1-21  POPULATION OF 900,000 OR MORE
   1-22        Sec. 1.  This article applies only to a municipality with a
   1-23  population of 900,000 or more in its operation of a municipal
   1-24  airport.
    2-1        Sec. 2.  (a)  The governing body of the political subdivision
    2-2  shall establish an airport division in the municipal police
    2-3  department and employ police officers and supporting personnel in
    2-4  the division. The division shall provide airport security and law
    2-5  enforcement for municipal airports.
    2-6        (b)  The governing body shall commission each police officer
    2-7  employed or appointed by the airport division of the municipal
    2-8  police department as a peace officer if the officer is certified as
    2-9  qualified to be a peace officer by the Commission on Law
   2-10  Enforcement Officer Standards and Education.
   2-11        (c)  Any person commissioned as a peace officer under this
   2-12  article has all the rights, privileges, obligations, and duties of
   2-13  any other peace officer in this state and of any other police
   2-14  officer appointed or employed by the municipality.
   2-15        (d)  A police officer in the airport division who transferred
   2-16  into the municipal police department after August 31, 1985, from
   2-17  another municipal department who was a uniform class police officer
   2-18  in the other municipal department is considered to be a uniform
   2-19  class police officer in the municipal police department. This
   2-20  subsection does not:
   2-21              (1)  apply to a person who has been promoted in the
   2-22  municipal police department to a higher classification than uniform
   2-23  class police officer; or
   2-24              (2)  give a person who transferred into the municipal
   2-25  police department from another municipal department after August
   2-26  31, 1985, and before September 1, 1995, a right to back pay.
   2-27        (e)  A police officer in the airport division who transferred
    3-1  into the municipal police department after August 31, 1985, from
    3-2  another municipal department has all accrued benefits related to
    3-3  employment transferred to the municipal police department and
    3-4  maintained at the rate or under the rules for each benefit
    3-5  applicable in the municipal police department.
    3-6        (f)  A police officer in the airport division who transferred
    3-7  into the municipal police department after August 31, 1985, from
    3-8  another municipal department has all accrued pension benefits
    3-9  dating from the date the person was first hired by the municipality
   3-10  automatically transferred from the officer's current municipal
   3-11  retirement system into the police retirement system for the
   3-12  municipality.
   3-13        (g)  This article does not affect the provisions of Section
   3-14  143.103, Local Government Code, relating to promotions or lateral
   3-15  crossovers between divisions.
   3-16        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   3-17        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   3-18  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   3-19  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   3-20  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   3-21  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.