Bill Text: TX SB21 | 2021 | 87th Legislature 1st Special Session | Introduced

Texas Senate Bill 21 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: Relating to a border operations training program for peace officers employed by local law enforcement agencies.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2021-07-07 - Filed [SB21 Detail]

Download: Texas-2021-SB21-Introduced.html

	87S10153 JCG-D

	By: Creighton	S.B. No. 21



	A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
	AN ACT
	relating to a border operations training program for peace officers
	employed by local law enforcement agencies.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
	SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 411, Government Code, is
	amended by adding Section 411.02094 to read as follows:
	Sec. 411.02094. BORDER OPERATIONS TRAINING PROGRAM. (a)
	The department, in coordination with local law enforcement
	agencies, shall establish and administer a border operations
	training program for peace officers employed by local law
	enforcement agencies that will prepare the officers to:
	(1) collaborate and cooperate with and assist any law
	enforcement agency in the interdiction, investigation, and
	prosecution of criminal activity in the Texas-Mexico border region;
	and
	(2) collaborate and cooperate with and assist district
	attorneys, county attorneys, the border prosecution unit, and other
	prosecutors in the investigation and prosecution of allegations of
	criminal activity in the Texas-Mexico border region.
	(b) The training program under Subsection (a) must include:
	(1) information on:
	(A) criminal activity occurring along the
	Texas-Mexico border, including drug trafficking and trafficking of
	persons and other activity carried out by cartels, transnational
	gangs, and other groups engaged in organized criminal activity; and
	(B) methods for identifying northbound,
	southbound, and intrastate criminal activity associated with drug
	trafficking, trafficking of persons, and other organized criminal
	activity;
	(2) best practices for investigating and prosecuting
	the criminal activity described by Subdivision (1) and securing the
	Texas-Mexico border; and
	(3) an overview of the department's operations at the
	Texas-Mexico border, including any collaboration with the United
	States Customs and Border Protection.
	(c) The department shall identify opportunities for a peace
	officer described by Subsection (a) to assist in the department's
	duties related to border operations. The department may authorize
	the officer to assist in carrying out those duties.
	(d) A peace officer authorized by the department to assist
	in carrying out duties related to the department's border
	operations as described by Subsection (c) is not entitled to
	compensation from the department for the assistance provided.
	(e) The department may partner with federal agencies in
	administering the training program under Subsection (a) and
	facilitating any assistance provided by a peace officer under
	Subsection (c).
	SECTION 2. Subchapter H, Chapter 1701, Occupations Code, is
	amended by adding Section 1701.359 to read as follows:
	Sec. 1701.359. BORDER OPERATIONS TRAINING PROGRAM. The
	commission may:
	(1) recognize, or with the consent of the Department
	of Public Safety administer or assist in administering, the border
	operations training program established under Section 411.02094,
	Government Code, as a continuing education program for officers;
	and
	(2) credit an officer who successfully completes the
	program described by Subdivision (1) with the appropriate number of
	continuing education hours.
	SECTION 3. This Act takes effect on the 91st day after the
	last day of the legislative session.