BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 1960

By: Perry

Community Safety, Select

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Current law allows juvenile probation officers to carry firearms in the course of their official duties. However, these officers have not been specifically authorized to carry firearms anywhere while they are not engaged in official duties. Additionally, it is not clearly a crime to try and take a firearm away from a juvenile probation officer. S.B. 1960 seeks to authorize juvenile probation officers to carry a firearm at any time, regardless of whether they are engaged in official duties, and to include juvenile probation officers within the scope of provisions making it an offense to take a firearm or other applicable weapon from certain individuals working in public safety. The bill also makes changes relating to the carrying of weapons by community supervision and corrections department officers and certain retired law enforcement officers.

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.

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. 1960 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to prohibit an establishment serving the public from prohibiting or otherwise restricting an honorably retired peace officer or other qualified retired law enforcement officer who holds a certificate of weapons proficiency and is carrying a photo identification that is issued by a federal, state, or local law enforcement agency, as applicable, and that verifies that the officer is an honorably retired peace officer or other qualified retired law enforcement officer from carrying on the establishment's premises a weapon that the officer is otherwise authorized to carry. The bill also prohibits such an establishment from prohibiting or otherwise restricting a community supervision and corrections department officer or a juvenile probation officer from carrying on the establishment's premises a weapon that the officer is otherwise authorized to carry, regardless of whether the officer is engaged in the actual discharge of the officer's duties while carrying the weapon. These bill provisions apply only to a cause of action that accrues on or after the bill's effective date.   

S.B. 1960 amends the Government Code to replace the authorization for a community supervision and corrections department officer to carry a weapon while engaged in the actual discharge of their duties if the officer satisfies certain qualifications with a broader authorization for a community supervision and corrections department officer who satisfies those qualifications to carry a weapon under the authority of their position regardless of whether the officer is engaged in the actual discharge of their duties. This change applies only to the carrying of a weapon on or after the bill's effective date.

S.B. 1960 amends the Human Resources Code to replace the authorization for a juvenile probation officer to carry a firearm in the course of their official duties if the officer satisfies certain qualifications with a broader authorization for a juvenile probation officer who satisfies those qualifications to carry a firearm under the authority of their position regardless of whether the officer is carrying the firearm in the course of their official duties. This change applies only to the carrying of a firearm on or after the bill's effective date.

S.B. 1960 amends the Penal Code to expand the conduct that constitutes the offense of taking or attempting to take a weapon from a peace officer, federal special investigator, employee or official of a correctional facility, parole officer, community supervision and corrections department officer, or commissioned security officer to include a person intentionally or knowingly and with force taking or attempting to take from a juvenile probation officer the officer's firearm, nightstick, stun gun, or personal protection chemical dispensing device. The bill changes the name of the offense to taking or attempting to take weapon from certain individuals working in public safety.

S.B. 1960 revises statutory provisions establishing exceptions to the application of the offense of unlawful carrying of a weapon and the offense of possessing or going with a weapon in places where weapons are prohibited for certain officers and other individuals to reflect the changes made by the bill with respect to the carrying of a weapon on the premises of an establishment serving the public and with respect to the carrying of a weapon or firearm, as applicable, by a qualifying community supervision and corrections department officer or a qualifying juvenile probation officer under the authority of their position. For purposes of those provisions, the bill assigns "establishment serving the public" the same meaning that term has in the Code of Criminal Procedure provision that prohibits such an establishment from prohibiting or otherwise restricting certain officers and investigators from carrying a weapon on the establishment's premises.

The bill's Penal Code provisions apply only to an offense committed on or after the bill's effective date, and the bill provides for the continuation of the law in effect before the bill's effective date for purposes of an offense, or any element thereof, that occurred before that date.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2023.