By: Birdwell, Blanco S.B. No. 2201
(In the Senate - Filed March 11, 2025; March 25, 2025, read
first time and referred to Committee on Border Security;
April 15, 2025, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 4, Nays 1; April 15, 2025,
sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 2201 By: Birdwell
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to intelligence databases for combinations, criminal
street gangs, and foreign terrorist organizations.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Article 67.053, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
amended by adding Subsection (b-1) and amending Subsection (c) to
read as follows:
(b-1) The department shall develop and make available a
minimum training course for access to and use of the intelligence
database established by the department under Article 67.052.
Before a person may access and use the intelligence database, the
person must complete the minimum training course described by this
subsection.
(c) The department shall adopt rules necessary to implement
this article, including the content of the training course required
by Subsection (b-1).
SECTION 2. Article 67.054, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
amended by amending Subsection (b) and adding Subsection (b-1) to
read as follows:
(b) Criminal information collected under this chapter
relating to a criminal street gang or foreign terrorist
organization must:
(1) be relevant to the identification of an
organization that is reasonably suspected of involvement in
criminal activity; and
(2) consist of:
(A) a judgment under any law that includes, as a
finding or as an element of a criminal offense, participation in a
criminal street gang or foreign terrorist organization;
(B) a self-admission, which may be implied or
demonstrated, by an individual of membership in a criminal street
gang or foreign terrorist organization, including the use of the
Internet or other electronic format or medium to post photographs
or other documentation identifying the individual as a member of a
criminal street gang or foreign terrorist organization [that is
made during a judicial proceeding]; or
(C) [except as provided by Subsection (c),] any
two of the following:
(i) [a self-admission by the individual of
membership in a criminal street gang or foreign terrorist
organization that is not made during a judicial proceeding,
including the use of the Internet or other electronic format or
medium to post photographs or other documentation identifying the
individual as a member of a criminal street gang or foreign
terrorist organization;
[(ii)] an identification of the individual
as a member of a criminal street gang or foreign terrorist
organization by a documented criminal street gang member or foreign
terrorist organization member or a family member [reliable
informant or other individual;
[(iii) a corroborated identification of the
individual as a member of a criminal street gang or foreign
terrorist organization by an informant or other individual of
unknown reliability];
(ii) [(iv)] evidence that the individual
frequents or is located at a previously documented area of a
criminal street gang or foreign terrorist organization, including
physical, digital, or online locations [and associates with known
members of a criminal street gang or foreign terrorist
organization];
(iii) [(v)] evidence that the individual
uses, in more than an incidental manner, criminal street gang or
foreign terrorist organization dress, hand signals, tattoos, or
symbols, including expressions of letters, numbers, words, or
marks, regardless of how or the means by which the symbols are
displayed, that are associated with a criminal street gang or
foreign terrorist organization [that operates in an area frequented
by the individual and described by Subparagraph (iv)];
(iv) [(vi)] evidence that the individual
has been arrested or taken into custody [with known members of a
criminal street gang or foreign terrorist organization] for an
offense or conduct consistent with gang activity as defined by
Section 125.061, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, with:
(a) known members of a criminal street
gang or foreign terrorist organization; or
(b) individuals who use, in more than
an incidental manner, criminal street gang or foreign terrorist
organization dress, hand signals, tattoos, or symbols, including
expressions of letters, numbers, words, or marks, regardless of how
or the means by which the symbols are displayed, that are associated
with a criminal street gang or foreign terrorist organization;
(v) [(vii)] evidence that the individual
communicates, whether in person, in writing, or electronically,
with [has visited] a known member of a criminal street gang or
foreign terrorist organization[, other than a family member of the
individual,] while the member is confined in or committed to a penal
institution; or
(vi) [(viii)] evidence of the individual's
use of technology, including the Internet and social media, to
advertise the criminal street gang or foreign terrorist
organization or recruit new members of a criminal street gang or
foreign terrorist organization.
(b-1) If a law enforcement officer has reasonable suspicion
that an individual is associated with a criminal street gang or
foreign terrorist organization as a result of meeting the criteria
to be included in the intelligence database, the officer's name and
department must be included in the database with the individual's
submitted information.
SECTION 3. Article 67.151(b), Code of Criminal Procedure,
is amended to read as follows:
(b) Information that is [Subject to Subsection (c),
information] collected about an individual under this chapter and
that relates [relating] to a criminal street gang must be removed
after five years from an intelligence database established under
Article 67.051 and the intelligence database maintained by the
department under Article 67.052 unless [if:
[(1)] the information continues to meet the submission
criteria under Article 67.054 to be included in those intelligence
databases [relates to the investigation or prosecution of criminal
activity engaged in by an individual other than a child; and
[(2) the individual who is the subject of the
information has not been arrested for criminal activity reported to
the department under Chapter 66].
SECTION 4. Article 67.152(b), Code of Criminal Procedure,
is amended to read as follows:
(b) Information that is [Subject to Subsection (c),
information] collected about a child under this chapter and that
relates [relating] to a criminal street gang must be removed after
two years from an intelligence database established under Article
67.051 and the intelligence database maintained by the department
under Article 67.052 unless [if:
[(1)] the information continues to meet the submission
criteria under Article 67.054 to be included in those intelligence
databases [relates to the investigation or prosecution of criminal
activity engaged in by a child; and
[(2) the child who is the subject of the information
has not been:
[(A) arrested for criminal activity reported to
the department under Chapter 66; or
[(B) taken into custody for delinquent conduct
reported to the department under Chapter 58, Family Code].
SECTION 5. Subchapter D, Chapter 67, Code of Criminal
Procedure, is amended by adding Article 67.153 to read as follows:
Art. 67.153. AUDIT. The state auditor annually shall
conduct an audit of information that is held in the department's
intelligence database maintained under Article 67.052.
SECTION 6. The following provisions of the Code of Criminal
Procedure are repealed:
(1) Article 67.054(c);
(2) Article 67.151(c); and
(3) Article 67.152(c).
SECTION 7. (a) The Department of Public Safety shall
develop and make available the minimum training course required by
Article 67.053(b-1), Code of Criminal Procedure, as added by this
Act, not later than January 1, 2026.
(b) A person who begins accessing the intelligence database
maintained under Chapter 67, Code of Criminal Procedure, before
January 1, 2026, is not required to take the minimum training course
described by Article 67.053(b-1), Code of Criminal Procedure, as
added by this Act, before January 1, 2027.
SECTION 8. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.
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