By Brown                                               S.B. No. 284
       74R1569 DLF-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the liability of a peace officer who provides standby
    1-3  assistance  to a victim of family violence.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Chapter  5, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-6  amended by adding Article 5.045 to read as follows:
    1-7        Art. 5.045.  STANDBY ASSISTANCE; LIABILITY.  (a)  In the
    1-8  discretion of a peace officer, the officer may stay with a victim
    1-9  of family violence to protect the victim and allow the victim to
   1-10  take the victim's personal property to a place of safety in an
   1-11  orderly manner.
   1-12        (b)  A peace officer who provides assistance under Subsection
   1-13  (a) is not civilly or criminally liable for the wrongful
   1-14  appropriation of any personal property by the victim.
   1-15        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-16  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-17  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-18  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-19  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-20  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-21  passage, and it is so enacted.