By: Hall, et al. S.B. No. 357
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the employment of honorably retired peace officers as
school district security personnel and the applicability to those
officers of certain law governing private security.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 37.081, Education Code, is amended by
amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (a-1) to read as
follows:
(a) The board of trustees of any school district may employ
security personnel, enter into a memorandum of understanding with a
local law enforcement agency for the provision of school resource
officers, and commission peace officers to carry out this
subchapter. If a board of trustees authorizes a person employed as
security personnel to carry a weapon, the person must be a
commissioned peace officer or an honorably retired peace officer,
as that term is defined by Section 614.121, Government Code. The
jurisdiction of a peace officer, a school resource officer, or
security personnel under this section shall be determined by the
board of trustees and may include all territory in the boundaries of
the school district and all property outside the boundaries of the
district that is owned, leased, or rented by or otherwise under the
control of the school district and the board of trustees that employ
the peace officer or security personnel or that enter into a
memorandum of understanding for the provision of a school resource
officer.
(a-1) An honorably retired peace officer employed as
security personnel under Subsection (a) must:
(1) keep their commission in active status; and
(2) fulfill all applicable requirements under
Sections 1701.351 and 1701.352, Occupations Code.
SECTION 2. Section 1702.322, Occupations Code, is amended
to read as follows:
Sec. 1702.322. LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL. This chapter
does not apply to:
(1) a person who is a peace officer or an honorably
retired peace officer, as that term is defined by Section 614.121,
Government Code, [has full-time employment as a peace officer] and
who receives compensation for private employment on an individual
or an independent contractor basis as a patrolman, guard, extra job
coordinator, or watchman if the officer:
(A) is employed in an employee-employer
relationship or employed on an individual contractual basis:
(i) directly by the recipient of the
services; or
(ii) by a company licensed under this
chapter;
(B) is not in the employ of another peace
officer;
(C) [is not a reserve peace officer; and
[(D) works as a peace officer on the average of at
least 32 hours a week,] is compensated [by the state or a political
subdivision of the state] at least at the minimum wage by:
(i) for a peace officer, the state or a
political subdivision of the state; or
(ii) for an honorably retired peace
officer, a school district; and
(D) is entitled to all employee benefits offered
to a peace officer by the state or political subdivision described
by Paragraph (C);
(2) a reserve peace officer while the reserve officer
is performing guard, patrolman, or watchman duties for a county and
is being compensated solely by that county;
(3) a peace officer acting in an official capacity in
responding to a burglar alarm or detection device; or
(4) a person engaged in the business of electronic
monitoring of an individual as a condition of that individual's
community supervision, parole, mandatory supervision, or release
on bail, if the person does not perform any other service that
requires a license under this chapter.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2023.