BILL ANALYSIS |
C.S.H.B. 103 |
By: Dutton |
Homeland Security & Public Safety |
Committee Report (Substituted) |
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Interested parties note that the United States Constitution protects against unreasonable searches and seizures but contend that state law generally preventing law enforcement from conducting searches without a proper search warrant does not sufficiently protect against constitutional violations. C.S.H.B. 103 seeks to address this issue by expanding the circumstances under which a peace officer is prohibited from conducting warrantless body cavity searches.
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CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.
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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.
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ANALYSIS
C.S.H.B. 103 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to expand the circumstances under which a peace officer is prohibited from conducting a body cavity search without a search warrant from during a traffic stop to any time other than when a person is confined in or committed to a penal institution or held in a place of detention and to remove statutory language excluding a pat-down from the types of inspections considered to be a body cavity search. The bill defines "penal institution" as a confinement facility operated by or under a contract with any division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice or the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, a juvenile secure pre-adjudication or post-adjudication facility operated by or under a local juvenile probation department, or a county or municipal jail and defines "place of detention" as a police station or other building that is a place of operation for a law enforcement agency and is owned or operated by the agency for the purpose of detaining persons in connection with the suspected violation of a penal law.
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EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2017.
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COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.H.B. 103 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following comparison is organized and formatted in a manner that indicates the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.
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