By Talton                                              H.B. No. 884
         76R3004 JMC-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the authority of a private investigator or security
 1-3     officer to execute a capias issued after a forfeiture of bail.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Article 23.05, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
 1-6     amended to read as follows:
 1-7           Art. 23.05.  CAPIAS AFTER FORFEITURE.  (a)  Where a
 1-8     forfeiture of bail is declared, a capias shall be immediately
 1-9     issued for the  arrest of the defendant, and when arrested, in its
1-10     discretion, the court may require the defendant, in order to be
1-11     released from custody, to deposit with the custodian of funds of
1-12     the court in which the prosecution is pending current money of the
1-13     United States in the amount of the new bond as set by the court, in
1-14     lieu of a surety bond, unless the forfeiture taken has been set
1-15     aside under the third subdivision of Article 22.13 of this code, in
1-16     which case the defendant and his sureties shall remain bound under
1-17     the same bail.
1-18           (b)  A capias issued under this article may be executed by a
1-19     peace officer or a private investigator or security officer
1-20     licensed under the  Private Investigators and Private Security
1-21     Agencies Act (Article 4413(29bb), Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes).
1-22           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-23     applies only to a capias issued under Article 23.05, Code of
1-24     Criminal Procedure, as amended by this Act, on or after that date.
 2-1           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-2     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-3     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-4     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-5     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.