HBA-MSH H.B. 1744 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1744 By: Goolsby Public Safety 2/28/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Current law prohibits political subdivisions and agencies of this state from maintaining a system of traffic ticket quotas, whereby an officer is required to issue a certain number of citations. The current prohibition was enacted to prevent governmental bodies from requiring law enforcement officers to produce revenue streams and designed to allow officers to focus on promoting safe driving. Under current law, it is possible for a governmental body to circumvent the prohibition on quotas, by evaluating the officer based on the number of arrests made involving the enforcement of traffic laws. House Bill 1744 extends the prohibition on quotas to include traffic arrests. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS House Bill 1744 amends the Transportation Code to prohibit a political subdivision or agency of this state from establishing or maintaining in any manner a plan to evaluate, promote, compensate, or discipline a peace officer according to the officer's making a predetermined, specified, or average number or percentage of any type or combination of types of arrests while performing duty assignments involving the enforcement of traffic laws. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001.