Sol Invictus
10-12-2009, 10:46 PM
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/region/legislature/stories/2009/08/23/0823peaceofficers.html
Questions of authority, accountability arise with state boards, trade groups and schools having own peace officers.
By Eric Dexheimer
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, August 23, 2009
The Texas State Board of Pharmacy, which licenses and disciplines pharmacists, has its own. So do the state Department of Insurance and the Board of Dental Examiners.
The Mackenzie Municipal Water Authority, which supplies water to four small Panhandle towns, has one, as does the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, a private trade group. Concordia University Texas recently acquired its own.
Every organization that might conceivably come into contact with a scofflaw, it seems, wants its own police department. And in Texas, many get to have them.
"The joke at the Capitol," said Tom Gaylor, who lobbies for the Texas Municipal Police Association, which has opposed the proliferation of policing agencies, "is that it's often easier to identify those who aren't police officers."
In recent years, the peace officer designation has spread far beyond its original constitutional definition of constables, sheriffs, marshals and police officers. Since 1965, legislators have amended the state's Code of Criminal Procedure, which sets out who can designate their own police department, nearly 50 times.The result: Today there are three dozen types of agencies, institutions, boards, commissions and political subdivisions that can appoint their own law enforcement agents. The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education, which licenses police officers, keeps tabs on 2,615 separate law enforcement agencies.
These are not just hobby cops.
"In Texas, when you get a commissioned, certified police officer, you get the same person who has the ability to investigate crimes and the authority to arrest," said Charley Wilkison, public affairs director for the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, a statewide police union. "And they're on the job 24/7."
In most instances, that means guns, badges and the authority — even the obligation – to interrupt wrongdoing wherever it occurs.
'Pull in the reins'
Having so many entities with their own ad hoc police can be confusing to the public.The issue of whose police should be doing what was highlighted last weekend, when agents in street clothes and unmarked cars from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission shot and critically injured a man after Austin police said they saw him driving erratically and briefly chased him downtown.Although alcoholic beverage agents primarily enforce drinking laws, officials noted that, as commissioned peace officers, they also receive comprehensive training in police tactics, including pursuit.
Even so, "clearly no one intended TABC agents to do general law enforcement," said Larry Hoover, a criminal justice professor and director of the Police Research Center at Sam Houston State University.
This month, a City of Austin animal control officer was charged with livestock theft for allegedly making off with seven head of cattle belonging to a Caldwell County rancher. But it wasn't Austin police or Travis County sheriff's deputies who made the bust.Instead, the investigation and arrest were carried out by "special rangers" commissioned by the Texas Department of Public Safety but employed by the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. With the exception of issuing traffic citations, the privately hired rangers enjoy the same privileges as police officers to "prevent or abate the commission of an offense involving livestock or related property."
In addition to scattered large and small government entities with their own cop shops — county park rangers and fire marshals, and rapid transit district and city parks and recreation patrol officers among them — the list of organizations with their own police departments includes a half-dozen airports, seven separate transit authorities, five harbor or port agencies, seven hospital districts, nearly 200 school districts and 21 municipal utility districts.
"There's a point at which you just shake your head," said Hoover, the Sam Houston professor. "I was on a municipal utility district board, and I can't imagine why you'd need a licensed peace officer. The Legislature needs to pull in the reins on this."
'A lot of folks asking'
Lawmakers have talked about it.
In 2007, Rep. Joe Driver, R-Garland, then chairman of the House Law Enforcement Committee, authored a resolution calling for a study of the expanding ranks of peace officers.
"We began to notice that there were a lot of folks asking for the ability to appoint police officers or have their own police force," Driver said.
Among other things, the 2008 study found that though there are plenty of specific standards for peace officers, there is little definition of what, exactly, constitutes a police department. Among the few requirements: It must have a 24-hour phone service and pay a $1,000 nonrefundable fee to the commission on law enforcement officer standards.Supporters say the specialty police forces take a burden off municipal police and play a valuable role in investigations relevant to their particular area of interest.The licensed peace officers in the fraud division of the Department of Insurance, for example, can work more closely with other law enforcement agencies investigating white collar crimes, said department spokesman Jerry Hagins.
The insurance police often have to be armed because "we may be dealing with people with criminal backgrounds," Hagins said.
Why legislators have permitted some state agencies to commission their own police forces and denied others isn't always clear.Investigators for the Texas Medical Board are commissioned peace officers; the State Board of Dental Examiners got its own police department in 2003. But when the boards of nursing and veterinary medical examiners sought the same authority, they were rejected.
"I absolutely refuse to speculate on why the Legislature does anything," said Nicole Oria, legal counsel for the veterinarians board. "It's just luck."
Responding to Gov. Rick Perry's 2004 executive order to more aggressively combat fraud, the State Board of Podiatric Medical Examiners repeatedly asked lawmakers to allow its investigators to be commissioned peace officers. After 2007, they finally threw in the towel.
"We just gave up on trying to get police powers," said Hemant Makan, the board's executive director.
Makan said that despite not being commissioned officers, his investigators have learned to work closely with law enforcement agencies. Besides, he said, while there were benefits to the agency having real cops of its own, the day-to-day details of operating a podiatry police force were sketchy.
"Say you're a podiatry board investigator inspecting, I don't know, a dirty scalpel," he said. "And you find a bag of cocaine. Then what are you going to do? Arrest the guy? And put him where? In the car you rented from Enterprise?"
Liability, training issues
There are other complications.
Once they are commissioned, many peace officers take moonlight jobs, working off hours as security for extra money. That raises liability questions, said Driver: "Who do they answer to? A board? The public? A police chief? Which one?"
Training is another issue.
The commission on law enforcement officer standards requires a minimum number of training hours — 618 — for every peace officer. Beyond that, however, requirements vary widely from department to department, said Executive Director Timothy Braaten. While large urban departments can require more than 1,000 hours, many smaller forces ask little more than the minimum, he said.Over the years, the Legislature has also given a handful of private entities the right to have their own police forces.In addition to the rangers who've been hired by the cattle raisers association since the 1920s, the Department of Public Safety appoints peace officers who are employed by railroad companies. Though not public employees, the railroad police have authority to carry guns and detain and investigate people alleged to have committed crimes against the business.
"Basically make sure we don't have bad guys coming onto our property and doing nasty things to our equipment," Texas Railroad Association President Dennis Kearns said.
Kearns said railroad companies in Texas employ 101 of their own commissioned police officers. With 53, Union Pacific has the most. The Port Terminal Railroad Association, in Houston, has four. Collectively, they responded to about 3,000 calls in 2008, with trespassing being the most frequent crime investigated.
"Most police officers you speak to are grateful we have our own police patrolling our property," he said.
But not all of them.
"We're concerned any time a corporation has authority under the color of law to take away rights and liberties," Wilkison said. "They answer to who? A corporate board?"
The two sides clashed this year when the railroads asked for permission to expand their jurisdictions beyond tracks and rail yards.
"I don't think a private company should be able to have its own police force with powers in the entire state," said state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston.
The measure failed.
Empowering private companies to maintain their own police departments also raises questions of public accountability.In 2006, a commissioned peace officer named Bobby Arriola was fired from Methodist Health System of Dallas, which boasts its own police department because of its affiliation with a medical school.But when Arriola asked for the arrest report and other documents such as his personnel file, the hospital said they were corporate records not subject to public scrutiny. In a May 2007 opinion, the state attorney general agreed.
"The (hospital) system, including its police department, is not a governmental body subjected to the (Public Information) Act," it concluded.
Some agencies have strict limits on the jurisdictions and responsibilities of their police forces.
According to state law, the state Board of Pharmacy's peace officers can't make arrests or carry guns.Until next month, that is. Earlier this year the Legislature decided they could.
Executive Director Gay Dodson said she is putting the finishing touches on the new rules — no emergency lights on investigators' cars, for instance.
"I would not think they're going to be joining in pursuit cases," Dodson said. "Pharmacists in general don't tend to run."
Questions of authority, accountability arise with state boards, trade groups and schools having own peace officers.
By Eric Dexheimer
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, August 23, 2009
The Texas State Board of Pharmacy, which licenses and disciplines pharmacists, has its own. So do the state Department of Insurance and the Board of Dental Examiners.
The Mackenzie Municipal Water Authority, which supplies water to four small Panhandle towns, has one, as does the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, a private trade group. Concordia University Texas recently acquired its own.
Every organization that might conceivably come into contact with a scofflaw, it seems, wants its own police department. And in Texas, many get to have them.
"The joke at the Capitol," said Tom Gaylor, who lobbies for the Texas Municipal Police Association, which has opposed the proliferation of policing agencies, "is that it's often easier to identify those who aren't police officers."
In recent years, the peace officer designation has spread far beyond its original constitutional definition of constables, sheriffs, marshals and police officers. Since 1965, legislators have amended the state's Code of Criminal Procedure, which sets out who can designate their own police department, nearly 50 times.The result: Today there are three dozen types of agencies, institutions, boards, commissions and political subdivisions that can appoint their own law enforcement agents. The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education, which licenses police officers, keeps tabs on 2,615 separate law enforcement agencies.
These are not just hobby cops.
"In Texas, when you get a commissioned, certified police officer, you get the same person who has the ability to investigate crimes and the authority to arrest," said Charley Wilkison, public affairs director for the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, a statewide police union. "And they're on the job 24/7."
In most instances, that means guns, badges and the authority — even the obligation – to interrupt wrongdoing wherever it occurs.
'Pull in the reins'
Having so many entities with their own ad hoc police can be confusing to the public.The issue of whose police should be doing what was highlighted last weekend, when agents in street clothes and unmarked cars from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission shot and critically injured a man after Austin police said they saw him driving erratically and briefly chased him downtown.Although alcoholic beverage agents primarily enforce drinking laws, officials noted that, as commissioned peace officers, they also receive comprehensive training in police tactics, including pursuit.
Even so, "clearly no one intended TABC agents to do general law enforcement," said Larry Hoover, a criminal justice professor and director of the Police Research Center at Sam Houston State University.
This month, a City of Austin animal control officer was charged with livestock theft for allegedly making off with seven head of cattle belonging to a Caldwell County rancher. But it wasn't Austin police or Travis County sheriff's deputies who made the bust.Instead, the investigation and arrest were carried out by "special rangers" commissioned by the Texas Department of Public Safety but employed by the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. With the exception of issuing traffic citations, the privately hired rangers enjoy the same privileges as police officers to "prevent or abate the commission of an offense involving livestock or related property."
In addition to scattered large and small government entities with their own cop shops — county park rangers and fire marshals, and rapid transit district and city parks and recreation patrol officers among them — the list of organizations with their own police departments includes a half-dozen airports, seven separate transit authorities, five harbor or port agencies, seven hospital districts, nearly 200 school districts and 21 municipal utility districts.
"There's a point at which you just shake your head," said Hoover, the Sam Houston professor. "I was on a municipal utility district board, and I can't imagine why you'd need a licensed peace officer. The Legislature needs to pull in the reins on this."
'A lot of folks asking'
Lawmakers have talked about it.
In 2007, Rep. Joe Driver, R-Garland, then chairman of the House Law Enforcement Committee, authored a resolution calling for a study of the expanding ranks of peace officers.
"We began to notice that there were a lot of folks asking for the ability to appoint police officers or have their own police force," Driver said.
Among other things, the 2008 study found that though there are plenty of specific standards for peace officers, there is little definition of what, exactly, constitutes a police department. Among the few requirements: It must have a 24-hour phone service and pay a $1,000 nonrefundable fee to the commission on law enforcement officer standards.Supporters say the specialty police forces take a burden off municipal police and play a valuable role in investigations relevant to their particular area of interest.The licensed peace officers in the fraud division of the Department of Insurance, for example, can work more closely with other law enforcement agencies investigating white collar crimes, said department spokesman Jerry Hagins.
The insurance police often have to be armed because "we may be dealing with people with criminal backgrounds," Hagins said.
Why legislators have permitted some state agencies to commission their own police forces and denied others isn't always clear.Investigators for the Texas Medical Board are commissioned peace officers; the State Board of Dental Examiners got its own police department in 2003. But when the boards of nursing and veterinary medical examiners sought the same authority, they were rejected.
"I absolutely refuse to speculate on why the Legislature does anything," said Nicole Oria, legal counsel for the veterinarians board. "It's just luck."
Responding to Gov. Rick Perry's 2004 executive order to more aggressively combat fraud, the State Board of Podiatric Medical Examiners repeatedly asked lawmakers to allow its investigators to be commissioned peace officers. After 2007, they finally threw in the towel.
"We just gave up on trying to get police powers," said Hemant Makan, the board's executive director.
Makan said that despite not being commissioned officers, his investigators have learned to work closely with law enforcement agencies. Besides, he said, while there were benefits to the agency having real cops of its own, the day-to-day details of operating a podiatry police force were sketchy.
"Say you're a podiatry board investigator inspecting, I don't know, a dirty scalpel," he said. "And you find a bag of cocaine. Then what are you going to do? Arrest the guy? And put him where? In the car you rented from Enterprise?"
Liability, training issues
There are other complications.
Once they are commissioned, many peace officers take moonlight jobs, working off hours as security for extra money. That raises liability questions, said Driver: "Who do they answer to? A board? The public? A police chief? Which one?"
Training is another issue.
The commission on law enforcement officer standards requires a minimum number of training hours — 618 — for every peace officer. Beyond that, however, requirements vary widely from department to department, said Executive Director Timothy Braaten. While large urban departments can require more than 1,000 hours, many smaller forces ask little more than the minimum, he said.Over the years, the Legislature has also given a handful of private entities the right to have their own police forces.In addition to the rangers who've been hired by the cattle raisers association since the 1920s, the Department of Public Safety appoints peace officers who are employed by railroad companies. Though not public employees, the railroad police have authority to carry guns and detain and investigate people alleged to have committed crimes against the business.
"Basically make sure we don't have bad guys coming onto our property and doing nasty things to our equipment," Texas Railroad Association President Dennis Kearns said.
Kearns said railroad companies in Texas employ 101 of their own commissioned police officers. With 53, Union Pacific has the most. The Port Terminal Railroad Association, in Houston, has four. Collectively, they responded to about 3,000 calls in 2008, with trespassing being the most frequent crime investigated.
"Most police officers you speak to are grateful we have our own police patrolling our property," he said.
But not all of them.
"We're concerned any time a corporation has authority under the color of law to take away rights and liberties," Wilkison said. "They answer to who? A corporate board?"
The two sides clashed this year when the railroads asked for permission to expand their jurisdictions beyond tracks and rail yards.
"I don't think a private company should be able to have its own police force with powers in the entire state," said state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston.
The measure failed.
Empowering private companies to maintain their own police departments also raises questions of public accountability.In 2006, a commissioned peace officer named Bobby Arriola was fired from Methodist Health System of Dallas, which boasts its own police department because of its affiliation with a medical school.But when Arriola asked for the arrest report and other documents such as his personnel file, the hospital said they were corporate records not subject to public scrutiny. In a May 2007 opinion, the state attorney general agreed.
"The (hospital) system, including its police department, is not a governmental body subjected to the (Public Information) Act," it concluded.
Some agencies have strict limits on the jurisdictions and responsibilities of their police forces.
According to state law, the state Board of Pharmacy's peace officers can't make arrests or carry guns.Until next month, that is. Earlier this year the Legislature decided they could.
Executive Director Gay Dodson said she is putting the finishing touches on the new rules — no emergency lights on investigators' cars, for instance.
"I would not think they're going to be joining in pursuit cases," Dodson said. "Pharmacists in general don't tend to run."