1-1     By:  Gutierrez (Senate Sponsor - Duncan)                H.B. No. 88
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House March 29, 1999;
 1-3     March 30, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Criminal Justice; April 30, 1999, reported favorably by the
 1-5     following vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 0; April 30, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to permitting a county to donate money to certain crime
 1-9     prevention organizations.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 351.901, Local Government Code, is
1-12     amended to read as follows:
1-13           Sec. 351.901.  DONATION TO CERTAIN CRIME STOPPERS AND CRIME
1-14     PREVENTION ORGANIZATIONS [ORGANIZATION].  (a)  In this section:
1-15                 (1)  [,] "Crime [crime] stoppers organization" means a
1-16     private, nonprofit organization or a public organization that:
1-17                       (A)  is operated on a local or statewide level;
1-18                       (B)  [, that] accepts and expends donations for
1-19     rewards to persons who report to the organization information about
1-20     criminal activity;[,] and
1-21                       (C)  [that] forwards the information to the
1-22     appropriate law enforcement agency.
1-23                 (2)  "Crime prevention organization" means an
1-24     organization with an advisory council consisting of local law
1-25     enforcement officers  and volunteers from the community that:
1-26                       (A)  is operated on a local or statewide level;
1-27                       (B)  identifies crime-related issues relevant to
1-28     a segment of society particularly prone to victimization, including
1-29     the elderly population; and
1-30                       (C)  provides assistance to the community in the
1-31     form of crime prevention and education and provides training for
1-32     law enforcement officers in dealing effectively with the segment of
1-33     society prone to victimization.
1-34           (b)  The commissioners court of a county by contract may
1-35     donate money to one or more crime stoppers or crime prevention
1-36     organizations for expenditure by the organizations to meet the
1-37     goals identified in Subsection (a) [for rewards].  The total amount
1-38     of all donations made in a calendar year may not exceed $25,000.
1-39           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-40     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-41     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-42     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-43     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-44     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-45     passage, and it is so enacted.
1-46                                  * * * * *