CLEAT’s lobby team works hard to maintain officers’ rights and advocate for better working conditions and benefits for our members.
88th Texas Legislative Session (2023)
CLEAT worked a robust legislative package this session and our Public Affairs team was successful in passing nearly 15 bills that we promoted from drafting to passage. We also actively opposed over 80 bills, and with the exception of a few, none passed. The summary of bills highlighted below does not cover all of the important law enforcement bills, but these items did take up a tremendous amount of resources from your legislative team and we are proud of their passage!
TCOLE Sunset Bill
SB 1445 (Senator Paxton)
Removal of honorable/general/dishonorable F5 categories.
Requires Chiefs and sheriffs to conduct an investigation prior to placing misconduct in the file.
TCOLE guidelines for developing model policies along w/ stakeholders in certain areas.
Bolstering requirements for newly formed LEAs.
Rogue District Attorneys
HB 17/SB 20
Holding Rogue DAs accountable by allowing for a removal process for DAs that refuse to prosecute certain types of offenses.
Child Pornography Statute Enhancement
SB 129 (Senator Springer)
Enhances current statute, making it easier to prosecute multiple images and increases the offense level in certain circumstances. CLEAT worked with local prosecuting attorneys and investigators to support the passage of this bill.
Failure to ID/Traffic Stop
SB 1551 (Senator West)
Adds to the “failure to identify” statute and creates an offense if a driver fails to provide a driver’s license and intentionally refuses to provide information at an officer’s request.
Elimination of Paper Tags
HB 718 (Representative Goldman)
Eliminates paper buyer tags. CLEAT has been at the forefront of exposing the fraud and violent crime associated with the compromised E-Tag system administered by DMV. This bill will improve officer and public safety as we move the State to hard plates.
Paper Tags/Tampering
HB 914 (Representative Hefner)
Adds paper tags to the “tampering with government record” statute in the penal code.
Prohibition on Ch.143 Repeal
HB 4227 (Representative Goldman)
Prohibits the repeal of civil service in cities with over 950,000 population. Protecting larger woke municipalities.
Workers’ Comp Omnibus
HB 471 (Representative Patterson)
Illness or injury leave of absence for firefighters, police officers, and emergency medical services personnel of political subdivision:
- Leave with full pay for an on-duty illness or injury (up to one year, commensurate with the nature of the injury).
- Political subdivision may choose to extend beyond the one year at full or reduced pay.
- Upon one year of leave expiring, the officer may use the accumulated time prior to being placed on temporary leave.
- Officer shall be reinstated after temporary leave to the same rank/seniority and another officer may volunteer to do the work of the injured officer until they are able to return.
Timely Claims Loophole
HB 2314 (Representative Canales)
Amends the Labor Code to provide that claim reporting requirements would be met if a claim for line of duty death benefits was filed with the Division of Workers’ Compensation or the insurance carrier within one year of the date the employee died due to a work-related injury or illness.
TMRS/COLA
HB 2464 (Representative Price)
Allows cities that have dropped COLA under TMRS to opt in with a specific increase through December 31, 2025.
Campus Police Retirement
HB 4141 (Representative Guillen)
Study bill for ISD and University police pension systems.
Campus Police/Search Warrants
HB 4906 (Representative Hefner)
Adds campus officers to the list of peace officers eligible to apply for certain search warrants related to digital communications.
Emergency Travel
HB 3335 (Representative Canales)
Amends Labor Code to clarify that the travel of peace officers responding to an emergency call is considered to be in the course and scope of the peace officer’s employment, as is the case with firefighters and emergency medical personnel.
Killed Bills:
- Changes to resisting arrest
- Limits on no-knock arrest warrants
- Ban on class C arrests for trans code violations
- Bills that would limit asset forfeiture
- Bills that would limit intelligence databases
- One size fits all disciplinary matrix for all departments
- Bills to bolster citizen complaint review boards
- Bills that attack qualified immunity
- And many more…
To view CLEAT’s Legislative Achievements from sessions past, click the button below.
Frequently Asked Questions
To read more about CLEAT’s efforts in past legislative sessions, click on the link in the image above, or navigate to cleat.org/legislative-archive
You can contribute to CLEAT PAC by texting CLEATPAC to 243725 or by clicking Contribute at the top of our webpage.
You can contribute to CLEAT PAC by texting CLEATPAC to 243725 or you can click the link below.
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