1-1  By:  Brown, Moncrief                                   S.B. No. 284
    1-2        (In the Senate - Filed January 23, 1995; January 24, 1995,
    1-3  read first time and referred to Committee on Jurisprudence;
    1-4  January 31, 1995, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
    1-5  Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 0;
    1-6  January 31, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-7  COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 284                By:  Henderson
    1-8                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-9                                AN ACT
   1-10  relating to the liability of a peace officer who provides standby
   1-11  assistance to a victim of family violence.
   1-12        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-13        SECTION 1.  Chapter 5, Code of Criminal Procedure, is amended
   1-14  by adding Article 5.045 to read as follows:
   1-15        Art. 5.045.  STANDBY ASSISTANCE; LIABILITY.  (a)  In the
   1-16  discretion of a peace officer, the officer may stay with a victim
   1-17  of family violence to protect the victim and allow the victim to
   1-18  take the personal property of the victim or of a child in the care
   1-19  of the victim to a place of safety in an orderly manner.
   1-20        (b)  A peace officer who provides assistance under Subsection
   1-21  (a) of this article is not:
   1-22              (1)  civilly liable for an act or omission of the
   1-23  officer that arises in connection with providing the assistance or
   1-24  determining whether to provide the assistance; or
   1-25              (2)  civilly or criminally liable for the wrongful
   1-26  appropriation of any personal property by the victim.
   1-27        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-28  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-29  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-30  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-31  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-32  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-33  passage, and it is so enacted.
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