BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 1625

By: Bell, Keith

Criminal Jurisprudence

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Accusations of inappropriate conduct made against emergency responders can be damaging to the lives and reputations of the responders, even if the accusations are proven false. It has been suggested that there are inadequate disincentives for making serious false statements against emergency responders for the purpose of initiating a criminal investigation against the responder. C.S.H.B. 1625 seeks to address this issue by creating an offense for a false report of criminal conduct by emergency responders.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill expressly does one or more of the following: creates a criminal offense, increases the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or changes the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

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

C.S.H.B. 1625 amends the Penal Code to create the Class A misdemeanor offense of false report of criminal conduct by an emergency responder for a person who, with the intent to deceive, knowingly makes a false report that a peace officer or emergency services personnel, while performing official duties, engaged in conduct that violates a state penal law and makes the report to any law enforcement agency for the purpose of initiating a criminal investigation against the officer or personnel. The bill establishes that for conduct constituting an offense under the bill's provisions that also constitutes an offense under another law, the actor may be prosecuted under the bill's provisions, the other law, or both.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2019.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 1625 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

The substitute narrows the conduct that constitutes the offense.

The substitute does not include the graduated penalty range for the offense or the punishment of a Class A misdemeanor based on certain contents of the false report but makes any conduct constituting the offense a Class A misdemeanor.