Bill Text: TX HB2956 | 2025-2026 | 89th Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating to a central database containing information about certain persons who have been convicted of or received a grant of deferred adjudication community supervision for certain offenses involving family violence and related notice requirements; creating a criminal offense.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2025-02-18 - Filed [HB2956 Detail]

Download: Texas-2025-HB2956-Introduced.html

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89R11272 CJD-D
By: McLaughlin H.B. No. 2956

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to a central database containing information about certain
persons who have been convicted of or received a grant of deferred
adjudication community supervision for certain offenses involving
family violence and related notice requirements; creating a
criminal offense.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Title 1, Code of Criminal Procedure, is amended
by adding Chapter 61 to read as follows:
CHAPTER 61. FAMILY VIOLENCE REGISTRATION PROGRAM
Art. 61.01. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
(1) "Department" means the Department of Public
Safety.
(2) "Local law enforcement authority" has the meaning
assigned by Article 62.001.
(3) "Offense involving family violence" means an
offense:
(A) for which an affirmative finding of family
violence was made under Article 42.013;
(B) under Section 25.11, Penal Code;
(C) under Title 5, Penal Code, if the offense is
committed against a person whose relationship to or association
with the defendant is described by Section 71.0021(b), 71.003, or
71.005, Family Code; or
(D) under Section 25.07 or 25.072, Penal Code, if
the violation that is an element of the offense occurred through the
commission of an offense described by Paragraph (C).
Art. 61.02. CENTRAL DATABASE. (a) To the extent that
funding is available under Article 61.08, the department shall
establish and maintain a computerized central database containing
information regarding persons who:
(1) have been convicted of or received a grant of
deferred adjudication community supervision for one or more
offenses involving family violence; and
(2) were 17 years of age or older at the time of the
offense.
(b) If a computerized central database is established by the
department under Subsection (a), a person described by that
subsection shall register as required by this chapter until the
10th anniversary of the date the person was last convicted of or
received a grant of deferred adjudication community supervision for
an offense involving family violence.
(c) To the extent that funding is available under Article
61.08, the department, in cooperation with the Board of Pardons and
Paroles, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, and the
Commission on Jail Standards, by rule shall design and implement a
system for the registration of persons described by Subsection (a).
The system must include requirements and procedures for:
(1) a person described by Subsection (a) to be
notified, before the person's discharge or release, of the person's
duty to register with a local law enforcement authority for the
period required by Subsection (b);
(2) the person to register or verify registration with
a local law enforcement authority:
(A) annually;
(B) every 90 days if the person is determined by
the department to be high risk because of the person's status as a
repeat offender; or
(C) every 30 days if the person does not have a
permanent address;
(3) the person to register with a local law
enforcement authority not later than five days after the date of a
change in the person's address;
(4) the database to track whether a person described
by Subsection (a) is in compliance with registration requirements;
(5) a local law enforcement authority to promptly
forward registration information to the department for use in the
database;
(6) the database to track whether a person described
by Subsection (a) is attending or is planning to attend a public or
private institution of higher education and, if so, the department
to promptly forward that information to the applicable institution
of higher education;
(7) the inclusion in the database and on the
department's Internet website of a recent photograph of the person,
updated annually; and
(8) the department to update the database daily.
(d) The department shall publish on its Internet website all
public information contained in the database.
Art. 61.03. PUBLIC INFORMATION. The information contained
in the computerized central database under this chapter is public
information, with the exception of any information:
(1) regarding the person's social security number or
driver's license number, or any home, work, or cellular telephone
number of the person;
(2) regarding an employer's name, address, or
telephone number; or
(3) that would identify the victim of an offense for
which the person is subject to registration.
Art. 61.04. PUBLIC NOTICE REQUIRED. (a) On notice by a
local law enforcement authority of the registration of a person
under this chapter or the person's change of address, the
department shall, not later than the 10th day after the date on
which the department received notice, provide written notice mailed
or delivered to at least each address, other than a post office box,
within a one-mile radius, in an area that has not been subdivided,
or a three-block area, in an area that has been subdivided, of the
place where the person resides. In providing written notice under
this subsection, the department shall use employees of the
department whose duties in providing the notice are in addition to
the employees' regular duties.
(b) The department shall provide the notice in English and
Spanish and shall include in the notice any information that is
public information under this chapter. The department may not
include any information that is not public information under this
chapter.
(c) The department shall establish procedures for a person
with respect to whom notice is provided under Subsection (a) to pay
to the department all costs incurred by the department in providing
the notice. The person shall pay those costs in accordance with the
procedures established under this subsection.
(d) On registration by a person subject to registration
under this chapter, a local law enforcement authority may provide
notice to the public in any manner determined appropriate by the
local law enforcement authority, including publishing notice in a
newspaper or other periodical or circular in circulation in the
area where the person resides, holding a neighborhood meeting,
posting notices in the area where the person resides, distributing
printed notices to area residents, or establishing a specialized
local website. The local law enforcement authority may include in
the notice only information that is public information under this
chapter.
(e) An owner, builder, seller, or lessor of a single-family
residential real property or any improvement to residential real
property or that person's broker, salesperson, or other agent or
representative in a residential real estate transaction does not
have a duty to make a disclosure to a prospective buyer or lessee
about registrants under this chapter.
Art. 61.05. INFORMATION PROVIDED TO LAW ENFORCEMENT ON
REQUEST. The department shall establish a procedure by which a
peace officer or an employee of a local law enforcement authority
who provides the department with a driver's license number,
personal identification certificate number, or license plate
number is automatically provided information as to whether the
person to whom the driver's license or personal identification
certificate is issued is required to register under this chapter or
whether the license plate number is assigned to a vehicle owned or
driven by a person required to register under this chapter.
Art. 61.06. EXEMPTION FROM REGISTRATION FOR CERTAIN FAMILY
VIOLENCE OFFENDERS. (a) A person required to register under this
chapter may petition the court having jurisdiction over the case
for an order exempting the person from registration under this
chapter at any time after the person's sentencing or after the
person is placed on deferred adjudication community supervision.
(b) After a hearing on the petition described by Subsection
(a), the court may issue an order exempting the person from
registration under this chapter if the court finds that an
exemption would be in the best interest of justice.
(c) An order exempting the person from registration under
this chapter does not expire, except that the court may withdraw the
order if after the order is issued the person receives another
conviction or a grant of deferred adjudication community
supervision for an offense involving family violence.
Art. 61.07. FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH REGISTRATION
REQUIREMENTS; OFFENSE. (a) A person commits an offense if the
person is required to register and fails to comply with any
requirement of this chapter.
(b) An offense under this article is a Class C misdemeanor.
Art. 61.08. FUNDING. The department may solicit and accept
a gift, grant, or donation from any source, including a foundation,
private entity, governmental entity, or institution of higher
education, for the establishment and maintenance of the
computerized central database described by this chapter and the
implementation of a related system of registration under this
chapter. The department shall establish and maintain the database
and implement the registration system only if sufficient funds are
available under this article for those purposes.
SECTION 2. Section 411.135(a), Government Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(a) Any person is entitled to obtain from the department:
(1) any information described as public information
under Chapter 61 or 62, Code of Criminal Procedure, including, to
the extent available, a recent photograph of each person subject to
registration under Chapter 61 or 62 [that chapter];
(2) criminal history record information maintained by
the department that relates to the conviction of or a grant of
deferred adjudication to a person for any criminal offense,
including arrest information that relates to the conviction or
grant of deferred adjudication; and
(3) any information described as public information
under Section 411.1355.
SECTION 3. (a) Chapter 61, Code of Criminal Procedure, as
added by this Act, applies only to a person who is convicted of or
receives a grant of deferred adjudication community supervision for
an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act. A
person who is convicted of or receives a grant of deferred
adjudication community supervision for an offense committed before
the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on
the date the offense was committed, and the former law is continued
in effect for that purpose. For purposes of this subsection, an
offense was committed before the effective date of this Act if any
element of the offense occurred before that date.
(b) As soon as practicable after sufficient funding becomes
available under Article 61.08, Code of Criminal Procedure, as added
by this Act:
(1) the Department of Public Safety shall establish
the requirements and procedures required by Chapter 61, Code of
Criminal Procedure, as added by this Act; and
(2) the central database required by Chapter 61, Code
of Criminal Procedure, as added by this Act, must be designed and
implemented.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2025.