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BILL ANALYSIS |
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By: West |
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
In October 1988, the Baylor University Medical Center/Baylor Health Care System Department of Public Safety (Baylor DPS) was approved to operate as a campus police agency by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education. The 78th Legislature, Regular Session, 2003, while amending certain sections of the Education Code, made certain clarifying changes to better delineate the jurisdiction of Baylor DPS, which provides vital and extensive security and police services to various affiliated medical campuses and facilities situated in several adjoining counties. These police services are wholly supported through private funding from the nonprofit medical corporation, relieving local government agencies of the considerable burden of providing a police presence and related enforcement activity on these campuses and affiliated hospitals, while still allowing local police agencies to provide assistance in appropriate circumstances.
After various amendments, the provisions of this enabling section have become confusing and inconsistent with other provisions of the code. Additional clarifying language is necessary to more plainly delineate the corporate authority to commission peace officers, and more precise terminology is needed to better define the jurisdiction of Baylor DPS as extending clearly to all Baylor-related medical campuses and facilities. This legislation will conform the jurisdictional limitations of the Baylor DPS to the sister provisions applicable to police departments commissioned by private institutions of higher education generally in Section 51.212 (Peace Officers at Private Institutions), Education Code.
S.B. 1735 amends current law relating to the employment and commissioning of law enforcement personnel to provide security services to certain educational institutions.
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
S.B. 1735 amends the Education Code to authorize, in any municipality with a population of 1.18 million or more, the governing board of a private, nonprofit medical corporation, or of the parent corporation of such medical corporation, that provides police or security services for an institution of higher education or a private postsecondary educational institution located within one of the medical corporation's or parent corporation's medical complexes, or that provides police or security services for another medical complex legally affiliated with or owned, leased, managed, or controlled by the medical corporation, or parent corporation to employ and commission police or security personnel to enforce the law of this state within the jurisdiction as provided by the bill.
The bill provides that the jurisdiction of an officer commissioned under this section is limited to property under the control and jurisdiction of the private, nonprofit, medical corporation or its parent corporation or any entity legally affiliated with or owned, leased, managed, or controlled by the medical corporation or its parent corporation; a street or alley that abuts the property or an easement in or right-of-way over or through the property described above; and any other location in which the officer is otherwise performing duties assigned to the officer by the private, nonprofit medical corporation or its parent corporation, regardless of whether the officer is on property under the control and jurisdiction of the medical corporation or its parent corporation, provided that the assigned duties are consistent with the mission of the medical corporation or its parent corporation and are being performed within a county in which the medical corporation or its parent corporation owns real property.
The bill provides that an officer commissioned under this bill is not entitled to compensation or benefits provided by this state or a political subdivision of this state.
The bill amends the Education Code to prohibit a person from being commissioned under the changes in law made by the bill unless the person obtains a peace officer license issued by the Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education (TCLEOSE). The bill requires the employing medical corporation or parent corporation to pay to TCLEOSE on behalf of an employee any fees that are necessary to obtain a required license.
The bill provides that a person's commission and any authority to act as an officer under this section are automatically revoked if the person's employment is terminated for any reason, rather than if a person's employment with a medical corporation is terminated for any reason.
EFFECTIVE DATE
Upon passage, or, if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2009.