Texas Attorney General Opinion: LO97-114 Page: 2 of 4
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The Honorable Steve Holzheauser - Page 2 (L097-114)
inspection of the dealer's records and premises by a peace officer at any reasonable time.4 The
provision about which you ask, subsection (k), follows these requirements and provides as follows:
A peace officer may seize, hold, and dispose of according to the Code of
Criminal Procedure a motor vehicle or part thereof which has been stolen or
which has been altered so as to remove, change, mutilate, or obliterate a
permanent vehicle identification number, derivative number, motor number,
serial number, or federal safety sticker.
When viewed in context with article 6687-2 as a whole, we believe that subsection (k) must be
construed to apply only to property in the possession of a salvage vehicle dealer.
In addition, the legislative history of subsection (k) indicates that the legislature, in enacting
provisions that are now subsections (f), (j), and (k), intended to authorize peace officers to conduct
warrantless searches and seizures of salvage vehicle dealers' property rather than to authorize seizure
of stolen motor vehicles in any context. Subsections (f), (), and (k), originally enacted as
subsections (e) and (f), were adopted in 1977 by the Sixty-fifth Legislature in Senate Bill 501. As
enacted, they provided as follows:
(e) An automobile salvage dealer shall keep all records required to be
kept by this article for one year... and he shall allow inspection of the
records by a peace officer at any reasonable time. A peace officer may
inspect the inventory on the premises of the automobile salvage dealer at any
reasonable time in order to verify, check, or audit the records. An automobile
salvage dealer shall allow and shall not interfere with a full and complete
inspection by a peace officer of the inventory, premises, and records of the
dealer.
(f) A peace officer may seize, hold, and dispose of according to the
Code of Criminal Procedure a motor vehicle or part thereof which has been
stolen or which has been altered so as to remove, change, mutilate, or
obliterate a permanent vehicle identification number, derivative number,
motor number, or serial number.
Act of May 19, 1977, 65th Leg., R.S., ch. 432, 1, 1977 Tex. Gen. Laws 1142, 1142-43. Bill
analyses of Senate Bill 501 indicate that the purpose of the bill was to regulate salvage vehicle
dealers as an industry:
[Senate Bill] 501 provides for the regulation of the automobile salvage
business by requiring removal of unexpired license plates from certain motor
vehicles, by providing for inspection of salvage yard premises by peace4Id. art. 6687-2(f), (j).
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Texas. Attorney-General's Office. Texas Attorney General Opinion: LO97-114, text, December 18, 1997; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth277296/m1/2/?q=%221997~%22&rotate=90: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.