By Armbrister                                         S.B. No. 1312
       74R6986 MLR-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to initial training and continuing education for police
    1-3  chiefs.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter D, Chapter 96, Education Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding Section 96.641 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 96.641.  INITIAL TRAINING AND CONTINUING EDUCATION FOR
    1-8  POLICE CHIEFS.  (a)  The Bill Blackwood Law Enforcement Management
    1-9  Institute of Texas shall establish and offer a program of initial
   1-10  training and a program of continuing education for police chiefs.
   1-11  The curriculum for each program must relate to law enforcement
   1-12  management issues.  The institute shall develop the curriculum for
   1-13  the programs in consultation with the Texas Police Chiefs
   1-14  Association.
   1-15        (b)  Each police chief must receive at least 40 hours of
   1-16  continuing education provided by the institute under this section
   1-17  each 24-month period.
   1-18        (c)  An individual appointed or elected to that individual's
   1-19  first position as chief must receive not fewer than 80 hours of
   1-20  initial training for new chiefs under this section.
   1-21        (d)  A newly appointed or elected police chief shall complete
   1-22  the initial training program for new chiefs not later than the
   1-23  second anniversary of that individual's appointment or election as
   1-24  chief.  The initial training program for new chiefs is in addition
    2-1  to the initial training and continuing education required by
    2-2  Chapter 415, Government Code.  On satisfactory completion of the
    2-3  initial training program for new chiefs, the next 24-month period
    2-4  under Subsection (b) begins for an individual on the first
    2-5  anniversary of the date the individual completed the initial
    2-6  training program.
    2-7        (e)  The institute by rule may provide a waiver of:
    2-8              (1)  the requirement of all or part of the 80 hours of
    2-9  initial training for new chiefs to the extent the individual has
   2-10  satisfactorily completed equivalent  training in the 24 months
   2-11  preceding the individual's appointment or election; or
   2-12              (2)  the  continuing education requirements of
   2-13  Subsection (b) if the individual has satisfactorily completed
   2-14  equivalent continuing education in the preceding 24 months.
   2-15        (f)  An individual who is subject to the continuing education
   2-16  requirements of Subsection (b) is exempt from other continuing
   2-17  education requirements under Chapter 415, Government Code.
   2-18        (g)  In  this section, "police chief" or "chief" means the
   2-19  head of a police department.
   2-20        SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   2-21        (b)  The Bill Blackwood Law Enforcement Management Institute
   2-22  of Texas shall establish the initial training and continuing
   2-23  education programs required by Section 96.641, Education Code, as
   2-24  added by this Act, not later than January 1,  1996.
   2-25        (c)  Section 96.641(c), Government Code, as added by this
   2-26  Act, requiring not fewer than 80 hours of initial training for
   2-27  newly appointed police chiefs applies only to an individual
    3-1  appointed or elected as police chief on or after January 1, 1997.
    3-2        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-3  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-4  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-5  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-6  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.