BILL ANALYSIS
|
Senate Research Center |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
Currently, a reserve deputy sheriff, before beginning to perform the duties of office, must file a bond of $2,000 payable to the sheriff. While constables have the ability to execute a blanket surety bond to cover their reserve officers, sheriffs are not permitted to do so. These parties have long held that this inequity in the law unnecessarily limits a sheriff's ability to cover reserve deputies.
H.B. 2272 seeks to address this issue by giving a sheriff the authority to execute a blanket surety statement to cover reserve deputy sheriffs. In any event, the county will also be given the option to self-insure against losses instead of requiring a reserve deputy sheriff to execute an individual bond or requiring a sheriff to execute a blanket security bond.
H.B. 2272 amends current law relating to surety bond requirements for reserve deputy sheriffs.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Section 85.004, Local Government Code, by amending Subsection (c) and adding Subsection (c-1), as follows:
(c) Requires a reserve deputy, before beginning to perform the duties of office and at the time of appointment, except as provided by Subsection (c-1), to file an oath and execute and file a bond in the amount of $2,000 payable to the sheriff. Makes a nonsubstantive change.
(c-1) Authorizes the sheriff, if a sheriff appoints more than one reserve deputy sheriff, to execute a blanket surety bond to cover the reserve deputy sheriffs. Authorizes the county, instead of a reserve deputy sheriff executing an individual bond under Subsection (c) or the sheriff executing a blanket surety bond, to self-insure against losses that would have been covered by the bond.
SECTION 2. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2015.