HBA-SEP H.B. 2517 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 2517
By: Garcia
Criminal Jurisprudence
3/25/2001
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Current law provides that a person commits an offense if a lawfully
arrested person refuses to provide the person's name, residence address, or
date of birth or if a person who is lawfully arrested, detained, or witness
to a criminal offense intentionally deceives  a peace officer in regard to
that information.  House Bill 2517 provides that the oral statement of a
lawfully detained person is sufficient means of providing identifying
information to an officer, the officer has the burden to prove intentional
deception, and an officer is prohibited from arresting a lawfully detained
person who has intentionally provided false information unless the officer
concurrently arrests the person for a separate offense. 

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 2517 amends the Penal Code to specify that a person commits an
offense if the person, who the officer has good cause to believe is a
witness to a criminal offense and is not suspected by the officer as being
a party to that offense, intentionally gives a false or fictitious name,
residence address, or date of birth to a peace officer.  The bill provides
that, regarding a person who is lawfully detained, an oral statement is a
sufficient means of providing identifying information to a peace officer.
The officer has the burden to establish the actor's intentional deception
with respect to that information.  The bill prohibits a peace officer
investigating conduct that may constitute intentional deception by a person
who is lawfully detained from arresting the person for that offense unless
the officer concurrently arrests the person for a separate offense.   

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2001.