1-1 By: Counts (Senate Sponsor - Duncan) H.B. No. 1121
1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House March 17, 1999;
1-3 March 18, 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 the law enforcement authority of certain investigators
1-9 acting outside their county of jurisdiction.
1-10 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11 SECTION 1. Section 362.001(2), Local Government Code, is
1-12 amended to read as follows:
1-13 (2) "Law enforcement officer" means a municipal police
1-14 officer, sheriff, deputy sheriff, constable, deputy constable,
1-15 marshal, deputy marshal, investigator of a district attorney's,
1-16 criminal district attorney's, or county attorney's office, or [a]
1-17 police officer of a joint airport who has been commissioned as a
1-18 peace officer under the laws of this state.
1-19 SECTION 2. Article 14.03(g), Code of Criminal Procedure, is
1-20 amended to read as follows:
1-21 (g) A peace officer [who is] listed in Subdivision (1), (2),
1-22 (3), [or] (4), or (5), Article 2.12, who is licensed under Chapter
1-23 415, Government Code, and is outside of the officer's jurisdiction
1-24 may arrest without a warrant a person who commits any offense
1-25 within the officer's presence or view, except that an officer who
1-26 is outside the officer's jurisdiction may arrest a person for a
1-27 violation of Subtitle C, Title 7, Transportation Code, [the Uniform
1-28 Act Regulating Traffic on Highways (Article 6701d, Vernon's Texas
1-29 Civil Statutes)] only if the officer is listed in Subdivision (4),
1-30 Article 2.12. A peace officer making an arrest under this
1-31 subsection shall as soon as practicable after making the arrest
1-32 notify a law enforcement agency having jurisdiction where the
1-33 arrest was made. The law enforcement agency shall then take
1-34 custody of the person committing the offense and take the person
1-35 before a magistrate in compliance with Article 14.06.
1-36 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
1-37 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-38 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-39 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-40 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-41 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-42 passage, and it is so enacted.
1-43 * * * * *