Police records bill that raised transparency concerns dies in special session

UPDATE, Sept. 4: The Texas House adjourned its special session Wednesday night without taking action on the Senate version of the police records bill. The Senate had stripped out public access amendments the House had added. HB 15 is dead for this special session.

UPDATE, Sept. 3: After the House approved HB 15 on Thursday with two amendments – one protecting the deceased suspect law passed in 2023 to allow public access to information when someone dies in police custody and the other protecting the rights of families in mass casualty events like Uvalde to view information – the bill moved over to the Senate. In that chamber it whizzed through a committee and the Senate floor on Tuesday, Sept. 2. The Senate removed both of the House amendments. The bill now is back in the House for a decision on whether to concur with the Senate version.

UPDATE: SB 15 was temporarily delayed Monday after Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, used a procedural move called a point of order to stop consideration of the bill on the House floor. An identical House version of the bill, House Bill 15, is on the agenda for consideration Thursday.

Senate Bill 15 by Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherord, on Monday’s House agenda has raised numerous concerns about transparency concerning police records.

It would place information related to police complaints that are deemed to lack sufficient evidence and don’t result in disciplinary action into a secret “department file.” But it’s not that simple. It could close off many records a police department says are related to unsubstantiated allegations. It’s not clear how the legislation will be interpreted and used.

Citizens concerned about transparency voiced numerous objections to this bill in a House committee hearing. As one witness from a conservative group testified Friday, it’s not “fully baked” and lawmakers should take time in the interim to consider this.

Records could potentially be withheld in situations like the Uvalde mass shooting or in cases where a suspect has died in custody but there are no charges against an officer, thus undermining or negating the 2023 law pertaining to in-custody deaths that took years to get passed. In the Uvalde tragedy, where some law enforcement lost their jobs, there was still insufficient evidence to sustain the charge of misconduct. So that information could be placed in a secret file.

Because of the broad language in the bill and the prohibition of these records being subject to the TPIA it will surely result in more lawsuits being filed to obtain these records through lawsuit discovery. That means more lawsuits to obtain records that are currently available under the TPIA.

Here is a KXAN news story that aired this weekend on the legislation. The Uvalde Leader-News and The Texas Tribune also have reported on the bill over the weekend.