By:  Van de Putte                                     S.B. No. 1583
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to reports submitted to the Commission on Law Enforcement
 1-3     Officer Standards and Education.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 1701.454, Occupations Code, is amended to
 1-6     read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 1701.454.  CONFIDENTIALITY.  (a)  A report or statement
 1-8     submitted to the commission under this subchapter is confidential
 1-9     and is not subject to disclosure under Chapter 552, Government
1-10     Code, unless the person resigned or was terminated due to
1-11     substantiated incidents of excessive force or violations of the law
1-12     other than traffic offenses.
1-13           (b)  Except as provided by this subsection, a commission
1-14     member or other person may not release the contents of a report or
1-15     statement submitted under this subchapter.  The report or statement
1-16     may be released only by the commission employee having the
1-17     responsibility to maintain the report or statement and only if:
1-18                 (1)  the head of a law enforcement agency or the agency
1-19     head's designee makes a written request on the agency's letterhead
1-20     for the report or statement accompanied by the agency head's or
1-21     designee's signature; and
1-22                 (2)  the person who is the subject of the report or
1-23     statement authorizes the release by providing a sworn statement on
1-24     a form supplied by the commission that includes the person's waiver
1-25     of liability regarding an agency head who is responsible for or who
 2-1     takes action based on the report or statement.
 2-2           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2001.
 2-3           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-4     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-5     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-6     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-7     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.