Bill Text: TX HB1538 | 2025-2026 | 89th Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating to the authority of a peace officer to apprehend a person for emergency detention and of certain facilities and physicians to temporarily detain a person with mental illness.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-12-06 - Filed [HB1538 Detail]

Download: Texas-2025-HB1538-Introduced.html

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89R4895 EAS-F
By: Lalani H.B. No. 1538

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the authority of a peace officer to apprehend a person
for emergency detention and of certain facilities and physicians to
temporarily detain a person with mental illness.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. The heading to Subchapter A, Chapter 573, Health
and Safety Code, is amended to read as follows:
SUBCHAPTER A. APPREHENSION, [BY PEACE OFFICER OR] TRANSPORTATION,
OR DETENTION WITHOUT JUDGE'S OR MAGISTRATE'S ORDER [FOR EMERGENCY
DETENTION BY GUARDIAN]
SECTION 2. Section 573.001, Health and Safety Code, is
amended by adding Subsection (i) to read as follows:
(i) A peace officer may take into custody under this section
a person who has been admitted as a patient to a facility listed in
Section 573.006.
SECTION 3. Subchapter A, Chapter 573, Health and Safety
Code, is amended by adding Section 573.006 to read as follows:
Sec. 573.006. TEMPORARY DETENTION IN CERTAIN FACILITIES.
(a) In this section, "facility" means:
(1) an inpatient mental health facility other than a
community center, a facility operated by or under contract with a
community center, an entity the executive commissioner designates
to provide mental health services, a local mental health authority,
or a facility operated by or under contract with a local mental
health authority, unless the facility is licensed under Chapter
577;
(2) a hospital, or the emergency department of a
hospital, licensed under Chapter 241; and
(3) a freestanding emergency medical care facility
licensed under Chapter 254.
(b) The governing body of a facility may adopt and implement
a written policy authorizing a physician at the facility to
temporarily detain a person who voluntarily requested treatment
from the facility or who lacks the capacity to consent to treatment,
as provided by this section, if:
(1) the person expresses a desire to leave the
facility or attempts to leave the facility before the examination
or treatment is completed; and
(2) the physician:
(A) has reason to believe and does believe that:
(i) the person has a mental illness; and
(ii) because of that mental illness there
is a substantial risk of serious harm to the person or to others
unless the person is immediately restrained; and
(B) believes there is insufficient time to file
an application for emergency detention or for an order of
protective custody.
(c) A policy a facility adopts and implements under this
section may not authorize a physician at the facility to detain a
person who has been transported to the facility for emergency
detention under this chapter.
(d) A policy a facility adopts and implements under this
section must require:
(1) the facility staff or the physician who intends to
detain the person under the policy to notify the person of that
intention;
(2) a physician to document a decision to detain a
person under the policy and to place a notice of detention in the
person's medical record that contains the same information as
required in a peace officer's notification of detention under
Section 573.002; and
(3) the period of a person's detention under the policy
to be less than four hours following the time the person first
expressed a desire to leave or attempted to leave the facility, and
the physician to release the person not later than the end of the
four-hour period unless the facility staff or physician arranges
for a peace officer to take the person into custody under Section
573.001 or a judge or magistrate issues an order of protective
custody.
(e) Detention of a person under a policy a facility adopts
and implements under this section is not considered involuntary
psychiatric hospitalization for purposes of Section 411.172(e),
Government Code.
(f) A physician, facility staff, or facility that detains or
does not detain a person under a policy a facility adopts and
implements under this section and that acts in good faith and
without malice is not civilly or criminally liable for that action.
(g) A facility is not civilly or criminally liable for the
decision of the facility's governing body to adopt or not to adopt a
policy under this section.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.