Texas Attorney General Opinion: LO97-111 Page: 3 of 6
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The Honorable Jerry Patterson - Page 3
(e) Any person commissioned under this Act must be a certified police
officer under the requirements of the Texas Commission on Law
Enforcement Officers and Standards.3 [Footnotes and emphasis added.]
Section 51.203 empowers the governing board of a state institution of higher education to
"employ and commission peace officers" to carry out the provisions of chapter 51, subchapter E of
the Education Code. Any employment for campus security must comply with section 51.203 in the
absence of other authority to employ security personnel. You do not indicate and we are unaware
of any other such authority.
We first consider the relevant requirements imposed and powers granted by section 51.203
to campus peace officers. A person employed and commissioned under section 51.203 must be a
certified police officer under the requirements of the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement
Officer Standards and Education ("TCLEOSE"). Educ. Code 51.203(e).5 An officer
commissioned pursuant to section 51.203 is a "peace officer," Code Crim. Proc. art. 2.12(8), and has
the powers of a "peace officer," set out in subsections (b) and (c) of section 51.203.6
Section 51.203 does not distinguish between the powers of a full-time peace officer and
those of a part-time peace-officer. Accordingly, a part-time peace officer employed and
commissioned consistent with section 51.203 has the same powers as a full-time peace officer.
Furthermore, if employed and commissioned under this section, it is of no consequence that a peace
officer is an off-duty police officer from a different jurisdiction insofar as his or her powers as a
campus peace officer are concerned.? Section 51.203 only requires that the officer must be a
'See Gov't Code ch. 415 (Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education).
'See State v. Backus, 881 S.W.2d 591, 592 (Tex. App.-Austin 1994, writ ref'd) (campus police officers
commissioned for purpose of protecting buildings and grounds of state institutions of higher education).
5A commissioned officer must also take and file the oath required of peace officers and file a bond in the
amount of $1000 with the governor or his successor in office, with two or more sureties. Educ. Code 51.203(d).
'See also Preston v. State, 700 S.W.2d 227, 229-30 (Tex. Crime. App. 1985) (commissioned campus peace
officer's authority to act as peace officer limited by terms of former version of section 51.203); see Backus, 881 S.W.2d
at 592-93 (insofar as Preston purports to define territorial limits of campus police officer's jurisdiction, superseded by
1987 amendments to statute) (holding now that university campus police officers authorized by section 51.203 to
enforce traffic laws, make warrantless arrests for offenses committed in his presence, and otherwise carry out duties of
peace officer anywhere in county or counties in which commissioning institution owns or controls property).
A "commission" grants to a person the right to hold and discharge the duties of a particular office. See 7A
WORDS & PHRASES 564 (1959) ("A commission grants the right to hold and discharge the duties of a certain office. U.S.
v. Planter, 27 Fed. Cas. 544, 546"); BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY 246 (5th ed. 1979) (a "commission" is "[a] warrant or
authority or letters patent issuing from the government, or one of its departments, or a court, empowering a person or
persons named to do certain acts, or to exercise the authority of an office (as in the case of an officer in the army or
navy)."). Article XVI, section 40 of the Texas Constitution prohibits one person from holding or exercising more than
one "civil office of emolument." We assume that the off-duty police officers involved here are paid both by the other
jurisdiction and by the district However, article XVI, section 40 does not prohibit off-duty, full-time police officers
(continued...)(L097-111)
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Texas. Attorney-General's Office. Texas Attorney General Opinion: LO97-111, text, December 10, 1997; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth277293/m1/3/?q=%221997~%22: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.