Bill Text: TX HB4249 | 2023-2024 | 88th Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating to a law enforcement agency's use of deadly force by means of a drone.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2023-03-21 - Referred to Homeland Security & Public Safety [HB4249 Detail]

Download: Texas-2023-HB4249-Introduced.html

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88R14137 JRR-D
By: Morales of Maverick H.B. No. 4249

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to a law enforcement agency's use of deadly force by means
of a drone.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 9.54, Penal Code, is amended by amending
Subsection (b) and adding Subsection (c) to read as follows:
(b) Notwithstanding any other law and subject to Subsection
(c), the use of force, including deadly force, involving a drone is
justified under this subchapter only if:
(1) at the time the use of force occurred, the actor
was employed by a law enforcement agency;
(2) the use of force:
(A) would have been justified under another
provision of this subchapter; and
(B) did not involve the use of deadly force by
means of an autonomous drone; and
(3) before the use of force occurred, the law
enforcement agency employing the actor adopted and submitted to the
Texas Commission on Law Enforcement a policy on the agency's use of
force by means of a drone, as required by Article 2.33, Code of
Criminal Procedure, and the use of force conformed to the
requirements of that policy.
(c) The use of deadly force involving a drone is justified
under Subsection (b) only if:
(1) the actor reasonably believes that the use of
deadly force by means of a drone is necessary to protect the actor
or another from an imminent threat of death or serious bodily
injury; and
(2) before the actor's use of deadly force occurred,
the head of the law enforcement agency employing the actor, on a
case-by-case basis, specifically approved the actor's use of deadly
force by means of a drone.
SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act applies only
to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.
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 section, an offense was committed before the
effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurred
before that date.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.