BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 750

By: Davis, Yvonne

Public Safety

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Impersonating a peace officer or other public servant is currently a felony of the third degree. However, the use of a peace officer's uniform is not specifically prohibited. Recent violent crimes involving individuals impersonating a law enforcement officer and the current concerns regarding homeland security warrant a harsher penalty for such an offense.

H.B. 750 makes it an offense to provide or possess a uniform to impersonate a peace officer and increases the penalty for an impersonation offense committed with the intent to commit other offenses.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

H.B. 750 amends the Penal Code to enhance the penalty for impersonating a public servant from a third degree felony to a second degree felony if a person impersonates a public servant with the intent to commit an offense in addition to impersonating a public servant. The bill expands the conditions that constitute the offense of false identification as a peace officer to include making, providing to another, or possessing a uniform bearing an insignia of a law enforcement agency that identifies a person as a peace officer or a reserve law enforcement officer if the person is not commissioned as such an officer.  The bill includes a uniform as an object in the offense of misrepresenting an object as property belonging to a law enforcement agency.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2009.