By Cuellar                                              H.B. No. 54
         76R303 JMC-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the creation of the offense of failing to assist a
 1-3     peace officer.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Chapter 42, Penal Code, is amended by adding
 1-6     Section 42.13 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 42.13.  FAILING TO ASSIST PEACE OFFICER.  (a)  A person
 1-8     commits an offense if:
 1-9                 (1)  the actor fails or refuses to assist a peace
1-10     officer who:
1-11                       (A)  requests the actor's assistance in arresting
1-12     another or in preventing the commission of an offense by another;
1-13     and
1-14                       (B)  the actor knows or should have known is a
1-15     peace officer; and
1-16                 (2)  a reasonable person, under the same circumstances
1-17     that existed at the time of the request by the peace officer, would
1-18     have assisted the officer.
1-19           (b)  An offense under this section is a Class B misdemeanor.
1-20           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-21           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-1     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.