Officials: State law enforcement commission needs teeth

The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, which oversees licensing of the state’s 102,000 police officers and jailers, could be in for a major overhaul.

“This is the time to get it done,” John Cyrier, R-Lockhart, chairman of the Sunset Advisory Commission, said at a combination in-person and virtual hearing Monday. The commission, charged with evaluating state agencies every decade or so, last month issued a blistering report on the law enforcement oversight commission, finding it lacked meaningful ability to oversee the state’s law enforcement agencies and discipline bad cops.

It also concluded the state’s educational requirements for police were outdated and insufficient. To qualify for a peace officer license, Texas cops need fewer hours of basic training than licensed cosmetologists and less than half the education required of air-conditioning and refrigeration contractors.

Testifying to the Sunset Commission — composed of five representatives, five senators and two public members — Kim Vickers, the law enforcement commission’s executive director, agreed, saying the state’s approach to regulating law enforcement has been ineffective. “I’ll be frank,” he said. “That’s true. We’ve been saying that.”

The heart of the Sunset Commission’s critique was that although the law enforcement commission is supposed to be responsible for licensing police, it has little authority to discipline bad cops. Instead, each of the state’s 2,800 local law enforcement agencies is responsible for enforcing its own standards, which can vary across departments, resulting in “inconsistently set and enforced local standards.”

Unlike in the agencies that regulate other professions such as teachers and doctors, state law gives the law enforcement commission authority to revoke a police officer’s license in only lim

ited circumstances: if the officer falls behind on mandated continuing education, if he or she receives two dishonorable discharges, or when an officer is convicted of felony or serious misdemeanor crimes.

As a result, the Sunset Commission concluded, Texas’ regulation of police was “toothless.”

For example, its examination of the licensing agency found that of 600 officers who had received “dishonorable” discharges, more than a quarter had been rehired.

Monday’s hearing was the first step in implementing or adjusting the commission’s conclusions and recommendations. Public comments will be heard during the upcoming legislative session, scheduled to begin Jan. 12.

The report recommended allowing the law enforcement commission to continue operations for another two years while setting up a blue ribbon commission to overhaul the agency and recommend changes to improve law enforcement regulation in Texas.

At Monday’s hearing — which only included invited testimony — Vickers said his main concern with the Sunset Commission’s staff report was over its recommendation to create a blue-ribbon committee to further study the matter, which he said might delay needed changes, as well as tasking the agency’s small staff with additional responsibilities.

“I see a tremendous amount of momentum in police reform right now — needed police reform in many areas,” he said. “And I hate to see anything that slows that momentum down or derails that in any way.”

Vickers said that his staff had already begun working on some of the Sunset staff ’s recommendations, including their suggestion of a statewide standard of conduct.

“We see that down the road, that is something that is critical and will be needed and we’re already preparing on that,” he said.