By:  Brown, Moncrief                                   S.B. No. 284
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the liability of a peace officer who provides standby
    1-2  assistance to a victim of family violence.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Chapter 5, Code of Criminal Procedure, is amended
    1-5  by adding Article 5.045 to read as follows:
    1-6        Art. 5.045.  STANDBY ASSISTANCE; LIABILITY.  (a)  In the
    1-7  discretion of a peace officer, the officer may stay with a victim
    1-8  of family violence to protect the victim and allow the victim to
    1-9  take the personal property of the victim or of a child in the care
   1-10  of the victim to a place of safety in an orderly manner.
   1-11        (b)  A peace officer who provides assistance under Subsection
   1-12  (a) of this article is not:
   1-13              (1)  civilly liable for an act or omission of the
   1-14  officer that arises in connection with providing the assistance or
   1-15  determining whether to provide the assistance; or
   1-16              (2)  civilly or criminally liable for the wrongful
   1-17  appropriation of any personal property by the victim.
   1-18        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-19  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-20  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-21  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-22  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-23  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-24  passage, and it is so enacted.