Honorable Dan Patrick, Lieutenant Governor, Senate
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB1646 by King (Relating to criminal conduct involving the theft, damage, or destruction of copper or brass or involving the unauthorized possession of certain copper or brass material, to transactions of metal recycling entities involving certain copper or brass material, to training on identifying certain copper or brass material, and to studying the effect of certain regulations on incidents of theft of copper or brass material; creating criminal offenses; increasing criminal penalties; providing an administrative penalty.), As Passed 2nd House
The bill would expand conduct constituting the offense of criminal mischief to include certain damage to copper or brass components of a critical infrastructure facility and make it punishable as a third degree felony.
The bill would expand the conduct constituting and increase the penalty for certain felony level theft offenses to include when copper or brass was stolen from a critical infrastructure facility or from its related equipment and make the offenses punishable at the next higher category of offense, specifically, from third degree to first degree punishment contingent upon the value of the copper or brass stolen.
The bill would create the offense of unauthorized possession of certain copper or brass material, committed when a person intentionally or knowingly possesses copper or brass material and lacks authorization, as defined in the bill, to do so, and make the offense punishable as a state jail felony or in certain circumstances as a third degree felony.
The bill would expand conduct constituting the offense of engaging in organized criminal activity to include as offense elements criminal mischief involving certain damage to copper or brass components of a critical infrastructure facility and unauthorized possession of certain copper or brass material, making the offense punishable at the next highest category of the element offense and, in the case of a first degree felony element offense, with a minimum fifteen year life imprisonment sentence.
The bill would create the Class A misdemeanor offense of intentional or knowing failure to maintain a record of purchase or acquisition of certain copper or brass material.
Expanding the conduct constituting and increasing the penalty for existing criminal offenses and creating new criminal offenses may result in additional demands upon state and local correctional resources due to a possible increase in the number of individuals placed under supervision in the community or sentenced to a term of confinement.
In fiscal year 2024, there were 25,732 arrests, 2,060 referrals, 2,819 placements on adult community supervision, and 1,333 individuals admitted into an adult state correctional facility for the criminal mischief and theft offenses which would be amended under the bill's provisions.
In fiscal year 2024, there were 27 individuals admitted into a juvenile state correctional facility for criminal mischief and theft offenses, however, data is unavailable to determine if the circumstances of these offenses meet the specific circumstances outlined in the bill's provisions.
The impact on state correctional populations or on the demand for state correctional resources cannot be determined due to the lack of data to estimate the prevalence of conduct outlined in the bill's provisions that would be applicable to existing offenses or would constitute the conduct of newly created offenses.