1-1     By:  Van de Putte                                     S.B. No. 1583
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 9, 2001; March 14, 2001, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
 1-4     April 3, 2001, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 6,
 1-5     Nays 0; April 3, 2001, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to reports submitted to the Commission on Law Enforcement
 1-9     Officer Standards and Education.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 1701.454, Occupations Code, is amended to
1-12     read as follows:
1-13           Sec. 1701.454.  CONFIDENTIALITY.  (a)  A report or statement
1-14     submitted to the commission under this subchapter is confidential
1-15     and is not subject to disclosure under Chapter 552, Government
1-16     Code, unless the person resigned or was terminated due to
1-17     substantiated incidents of excessive force or violations of the law
1-18     other than traffic offenses.
1-19           (b)  Except as provided by this subsection, a commission
1-20     member or other person may not release the contents of a report or
1-21     statement submitted under this subchapter.  The report or statement
1-22     may be released only by the commission employee having the
1-23     responsibility to maintain the report or statement and only if:
1-24                 (1)  the head of a law enforcement agency or the agency
1-25     head's designee makes a written request on the agency's letterhead
1-26     for the report or statement accompanied by the agency head's or
1-27     designee's signature; and
1-28                 (2)  the person who is the subject of the report or
1-29     statement authorizes the release by providing a sworn statement on
1-30     a form supplied by the commission that includes the person's waiver
1-31     of liability regarding an agency head who is responsible for or who
1-32     takes action based on the report or statement.
1-33           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2001.
1-34           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-35     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-36     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-37     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-38     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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