Press release
Every two years the Texas Legislature meets and creates and modify laws that impact peace officers all over the state. With over 11,000 bills filed there are many that change current law or actually create new laws that affect the duties, roles, and safety of peace officers.
Over the last week, Henderson County District Attorney Scott McKee and Assistant District Attorney Justin Weiner have been teaching a training course for East Texas peace officers. The two have taught the same training in 2011 and 2013 exclusively to Henderson County peace officers. This year, with growing demand, the training included peace officers from Henderson, Kaufman, Van Zandt and Anderson counties.
The pair conducted six sessions with over 500 peace offices in attendance hailing from 54 different agencies. Henderson County Sheriff Ray Nutt’s Office sponsored McKee and Weiner’s course ensuring that the officers in attendance received the required credit.
“Months of planning go into this training, including building a four hour presentation from scratch. At the end of the day, I really feel blessed to be able to give back, even if just a little bit. These men and women put their lives on the line and sacrifice daily so that we can enjoy our own individual liberties safely,” Weiner stated about the training.
In Texas, certified peace officers are required to complete 40 hours of continuing education training every 24 months. One of the required courses is a State and Federal Law Legislative Update Course. The course usually costs anywhere from $50 up to $100 and covers a large portion of the changes from each Texas Legislative session. “At the end of the day, this training saved taxpayers and agencies a bunch of money because it was free” McKee added.
The purpose of the course was to inform and educate Texas peace officers about new
legislative changes in Texas Laws, Federal Laws, as well as U. S. Supreme Court decisions impacting local law enforcement. This also includes Texas statues including but not limited to the following codes: the Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Family Code, the Transportation Code, the Government Code, and the Occupation & Labor Codes.
McKee also takes the opportunity to go over recent trends in crime and law enforcement he sees as the county’s top felony prosecutor. Although McKee says he gets the opportunity to meet with most of the agency heads throughout the year, getting the opportunity to meet with the guys that are out on the streets where the rubber meets the road is a great opportunity. “Most people don’t realize the number of cities with police departments we have in Henderson County, as well as the state and federal agencies and the schools. We usually have over 30 agencies submitting cases to our office on any given year. It’s important to spend time with these officers in a training environment to focus on the things that are important to the community and the prosecution of the cases,” said McKee. McKee spent most of his time this year taking about open carry and the duties of law enforcement agencies in the discovery process.
The presentation was in the form of a four hour long slideshow that was created from scratch. The most important and relevant parts of the 84th Texas Legislature were covered. While it is impossible to go over every passed bill in such a short period of time, the course aims to address the highlights in the law that are most likely to impact peace officers on a daily basis.
Changes discussed cover everything from open carry to changes in truancy laws. The course was held at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in the Hart-Morris Conservation Room.
“You couldn’t ask for a better setup. The facilities are state-of-the-art and the staff, especially Jim Booker, really go above and beyond to make the experience second-to-none. It is wonderful to have such a great representation of Athens to so many Peace Officers who come from out of town,” stated Weiner. McKee and Weiner will be holding the training one more time on Thursday, September 10th for the Help and Hope Conference. The conference is sponsored by the Northeast Texas Child Advocacy Center and will be held in Winnsboro, Texas. The Center provides services to children victims and law enforcement to Camp, Delta, Franklin, Hopkins, Rains, Titus, Upshur, and Wood Counties.
I’d like to see the Texas Legislature put those laws on line, with the availability to see who voted for what. Getting voting records is extremely hard. Seems the public should be notified of new and changing laws, as well as the police officer.