Honorable Pete Gallego, Chair, House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
FROM:
John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB1937 by Simpson (Relating to prosecution and punishment for the offense of official oppression by the intrusive touching of persons seeking access to public buildings and transportation; providing penalties. ), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
The provisions of the bill that are the subject of this analysis would amend the Penal Code as it relates to the punishment for the offense of official oppression by the intrusive touching of persons seeking access to public buildings and transportation. Under the provisions of the bill, certain specified public servants would commit an offense of official oppression if while acting in that capacity, without probable cause to believe the other person committed an offense, perform a search for granting access to a publicly accessible building or form of transportation that intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly involves certain touching. Under current law and policy, and under the proposed bill, the offense of official oppression is punishable as a Class A Misdemeanor.
A Class A Misdemeanor is punishable by confinement in county jail for a term not to exceed one year and/or a fine not to exceed $4,000.
Expanding the list of behaviors for which a penalty is applied for any criminal offense is expected to result in increased demands upon the correctional resources of counties or of the State due to an increase in offenses. For this analysis it is assumed the number of offenders convicted under this statute would not result in a significant impact on the programs and workload of state corrections agencies or on the demand for resources and services of those agencies.