By:  Brown                                            S.B. No. 1478
         Line and page numbers may not match official copy.
         Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the appointment of peace officers by a water district.
 1-2           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-3           SECTION 1.  Title 4, Chapter 49, Section 49.216, Water Code,
 1-4     is amended to read as follows:
 1-5           Sec. 49.216.  Enforcement by Peace Officers.  (a)  A district
 1-6     may contract for or employ its own peace officers with power to
 1-7     make arrests when necessary to prevent or abate the commission of:
 1-8                 (1)  any offense against the rules of the district when
 1-9     the offense or threatened offense occurs on any land, water, or
1-10     easement owned or controlled by the district;
1-11                 (2)  any offense involving injury or detriment to any
1-12     property owned or controlled by the district; and
1-13                 (3)  any offense against the laws of the state.
1-14           (b)  A district may appoint reserve peace officers who may be
1-15     called to serve as peace officers by the district during the actual
1-16     discharge of their official duties.
1-17           (c)  A reserve peace officer serves at the discretion of the
1-18     district and may be called into service if the district considers
1-19     it necessary to have additional officers to preserve the peace in
1-20     or enforce the law of the district.
1-21           (d)  A reserve peace officer on active duty and actively
1-22     engaged in assigned duties has the same rights, privileges, and
 2-1     duties as any other peace officer of the district.
 2-2           (e)  Any peace officer, before beginning to perform any
 2-3     duties and at the time of appointment, must take an oath and
 2-4     execute a bond conditioned on faithful performance of such
 2-5     officer's duties in the amount of $1,000 payable to the district.
 2-6     The oath and the bond shall be filed in the district office.
 2-7           (f)  A peace officer for a district must be a full-time paid
 2-8     employee of the district who works on the average of at least 32
 2-9     hours a week for the district, is compensated by the district at
2-10     the rate of the minimum wage or higher, and is entitled to all
2-11     employee benefits offered to other employees of the district.
2-12           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-13     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-14     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-15     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-16     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-17     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-18     passage, and it is so enacted.