SRC-LBB H.B. 1661 78(R)   BILL ANALYSIS


Senate Research Center   H.B. 1661
78R5237 PEP-DBy: Haggerty (Jackson)
Criminal Justice
5/22/2003
Engrossed


DIGEST AND PURPOSE 

Under current law, it is illegal for a private security officer to possess
a chemical dispensing device.  However, many security officers routinely
work alone in remote areas without backup or support, leaving them open to
attack by one or more individuals.  Like police officers, security guards
need ways to defend themselves from attacks.  Without proper training,
however, the security officers could endanger the public with the improper
use of chemical dispensing devices. H.B. 1661 provides private security
officers, with proper training, a defense to prosecution for possession of
a chemical dispensing device.    

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to
a state officer, institution, or agency. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.  Amends Section 46.05, Penal Code, by adding Subsection (f), as
follows: 

(f)  Provides that it is a defense to prosecution under this section for
the possession of a chemical dispensing device that the actor holds a
security officer commission issued by the Texas Commission on Private
Security and has received training on the use of the chemical dispensing
device by a training program that is: 

(1)  provided by the Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and
Education; or 
(2)  approved for the purposes described by this subsection by the Texas
Commission on Private Security. 

SECTION 2.   Reenacts and amends Section 46.15(b), Penal Code, as amended
by Chapters 1221 and 1261, Acts of the 75th Legislature, Regular Session,
1997, to provide that Section 46.02 does not apply to certain individuals.

SECTION 3.  (a)  Effective date:  September 1, 2003.
            (b)  Makes application of this Act prospective.