Bill Text: TX HB2826 | 2021-2022 | 87th Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating to access to and review of a person's employment records held by a law enforcement agency.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2021-03-18 - Referred to Homeland Security & Public Safety [HB2826 Detail]

Download: Texas-2021-HB2826-Introduced.html

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87R4973 MAW-F
By: Bonnen H.B. No. 2826

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to access to and review of a person's employment records
held by a law enforcement agency.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 143.089, Local Government Code, is
amended by amending Subsection (g) and adding Subsections (h) and
(i) to read as follows:
(g) A fire or police department may maintain a department
[personnel] file on a fire fighter or police officer employed by the
department for the department's use. Except as provided by
Subsection (h), [but] the department may not release any
information contained in the department file to any agency or
person requesting information relating to a fire fighter or police
officer. The department shall refer to the director or the
director's designee a person or agency that requests information
that is maintained in the fire fighter's or police officer's
department [personnel] file.
(h) A police officer is entitled to view the contents of the
officer's department file maintained under Subsection (g) and is
entitled, on request, to a copy of any document in the officer's
department file.
(i) A police department shall include in a police officer's
department file maintained under Subsection (g) any statement that
the officer requests to be included in the file.
SECTION 2. Section 1701.451, Occupations Code, is amended
by amending Subsections (a) and (a-1) and adding Subsections (d)
and (e) to read as follows:
(a) Before a law enforcement agency may hire a person
licensed under this chapter, the agency head or the agency head's
designee must:
(1) make a request to the commission for any
employment termination report regarding the person that is
maintained by the commission under this subchapter; and
(2) submit to the commission on the form prescribed by
the commission confirmation that the agency:
(A) conducted in the manner prescribed by the
commission a criminal background check regarding the person;
(B) obtained the person's written consent on a
form prescribed by the commission for the agency to view the
person's employment records;
(C) obtained from the commission any service or
education records regarding the person maintained by the
commission; and
(D) reviewed the person's employment records
from [contacted] each of the person's previous law enforcement
employers.
(a-1) A law enforcement agency, on receipt of [that obtains]
a consent form described by Subsection (a)(2)(B), shall make the
person's employment records available to a hiring law enforcement
agency [on request]. The commission by rule shall prescribe the
manner by which a law enforcement agency shall make a person's
employment records available to a hiring law enforcement agency.
(d) A law enforcement agency's failure to review a person's
employment records as required by Subsection (a)(2)(D) or to make a
person's employment records available as required by Subsection
(a-1) constitutes grounds for imposing an administrative penalty
under Section 1701.507.
(e) To the extent of any conflict between this section and
Section 143.089, Local Government Code, this section controls.
SECTION 3. Section 143.089, Local Government Code, as
amended by this Act, applies to a request to view or obtain a copy of
information made on or after the effective date of this Act.
Section 143.089(h), Local Government Code, as added by this Act,
applies to the entire contents of a department file regardless of
the date on which a document or other information was placed in the
department file.
SECTION 4. (a) Not later than December 1, 2021, the Texas
Commission on Law Enforcement shall adopt rules and update forms as
necessary to comply with Section 1701.451, Occupations Code, as
amended by this Act.
(b) Section 1701.451, Occupations Code, as amended by this
Act, applies only to the hiring of a person by a law enforcement
agency that occurs on or after December 1, 2021. The hiring of a
person by a law enforcement agency that occurs before that date is
governed by the law in effect immediately before the effective date
of this Act, and the former law is continued in effect for that
purpose.
SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 2021.