1-1     By:  Hartnett, Talton (Senate Sponsor - West)         H.B. No. 1001
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 26, 1999;
 1-3     April 27, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Criminal Justice; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by the following
 1-5     vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the creation of the criminal offense of unlawful
 1-9     installation of a tracking device on a motor vehicle.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Chapter 16, Penal Code, is amended by adding
1-12     Section 16.06 to read as follows:
1-13           Sec. 16.06.  UNLAWFUL INSTALLATION OF TRACKING DEVICE.  (a)
1-14     In this section:
1-15                 (1)  "Electronic or mechanical tracking device" means a
1-16     device capable of emitting an electronic frequency or other signal
1-17     that may be used by a person to identify, monitor, or record the
1-18     location of another person or object.
1-19                 (2)  "Motor vehicle" has the meaning assigned by
1-20     Section 501.002, Transportation Code.
1-21           (b)  A person commits an offense if the person knowingly
1-22     installs an electronic or mechanical tracking device on a motor
1-23     vehicle owned or leased by another person.
1-24           (c)  An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor.
1-25           (d)  It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this
1-26     section that the person:
1-27                 (1)  obtained the effective consent of the owner or
1-28     lessee of the motor vehicle before the electronic or mechanical
1-29     tracking device was installed;
1-30                 (2)  was a peace officer who installed the device in
1-31     the course of a criminal investigation or pursuant to an order of a
1-32     court to gather information for a law enforcement agency;
1-33                 (3)  assisted another whom the person reasonably
1-34     believed to be a peace officer authorized to install the device in
1-35     the course of a criminal investigation or pursuant to an order of a
1-36     court to gather information for a law enforcement agency; or
1-37                 (4)  was a private investigator licensed under the
1-38     Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies Act (Article
1-39     4413(29bb), Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes) who installed the
1-40     device:
1-41                       (A)  with written consent:
1-42                             (i)  to install the device given by the
1-43     owner or lessee of the motor vehicle; and
1-44                             (ii)  to enter private residential
1-45     property, if that entry was necessary to install the device, given
1-46     by the owner or lessee of the property; or
1-47                       (B)  pursuant to an order of or other
1-48     authorization from a court to gather information.
1-49           SECTION 2.  The heading to Chapter 16, Penal Code, is amended
1-50     to read as follows:
1-51      CHAPTER 16.  CRIMINAL INSTRUMENTS, [AND] INTERCEPTION OF WIRE OR
1-52           ORAL COMMUNICATION, AND INSTALLATION OF TRACKING DEVICE
1-53           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-54           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-55     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-56     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-57     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-58     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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