I ran across a bizarre article: a La Marque, TX woman was arrested and ticketed for dropping an F-bomb in a Wal Mart by–get this–a city fire marshal! Help me: what does swearing have to do with fires?
Texas has many overlapping types of law enforcement agencies. Here’s a sampling from the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, organized roughly by agency type:
- County sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, and reserve sheriffs
- County precinct constables, deputy constables, and reserve constables
- City marshals (presumably the process serving kind)
- City police and reserve police
- Texas Department of Public Safety, including Texas Rangers
- Investigators for county district attorneys, criminal DAs, and and county attorneys
- Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission’s officers
- Texas school district police officers (jurisdiction is entire district boundary and any property outside district boundaries that is owned, leased, or rented by or otherwise under the control of the school district) (source)
- Public university and college police officers (full jurisdiction within entire counties that contain property owned, leased, rented, or otherwise under the control of the university or college) (source)
- Private university and college police officers (jurisdiction is on property owned by the school or anywhere within a county in which the school owns property as long as the officer is performing duties assigned by the university and which are consistent with the school’s educational mission) (source)
- General Services Commission officers
- Parks and Wildlife Commission officers
- Airport police officers for airports exclusively operated by Houston, San Antonio, or Dallas or any political subdivision of the state.
- City park and recreational department officers
- State comptroller’s security officers and investigators
- Water control and improvement district’s police officers (jurisdiction appears to be limited to any land, water, or easement owned or controlled by the district) (source)
- Municipally-owned harbor or port police officer (source)
- Texas Medical Board investigators
- Dallas County Hospital District, Tarrant County Hospital District, or Bexar County Hospital District officers (jurisdiction limited to district property or adjacent roads) (source)
- County park rangers in Harris County or any county bordering the Gulf of Mexico (jurisdiction limited to county parks and unincorporated parts of islands or isthmuses) (source)
- Texas Racing Commission investigators
- Texas State Board of Pharmacy officers (may not carry a firearm or make an arrest) (source)
- Metropolitan rapid transit authority or regional transportation authority officers
- Texas Attorney General investigators
- Texas Lottery Commission security officers or investigators
- Texas Department of Health officer (limited to enforcement of food and drug portions of Health and Safety Code) (source)
- Supreme court, the court of criminal appeals, and each of the courts of appeals can appoint a police officer “to protect the court” (source)
- State fire marshal’s fire and arson investigators (source)
- Texas Department of Insurance investigators (source)
- Texas Youth Commission inspectors general (source)
- Texas Youth Commission apprehension specialists (source)
- Texas Department of Criminal Justice inspectors (source)
- Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education investigators (source)
- Texas Commission on Private Security investigators (source)
- Emergency Services District police officer (source)
- Emergency Services District fire hazards investigator (source)
- State Board of Dental Examiners officer (only to enforce relevant portions of the Dentistry subtitle of the occupations Code) (source)
- Texas Juvenile Probation Commission investigator (for the purpose of investigating allegations of abuse, neglect, and exploitation in juvenile justice programs and facilities) (source)
Do we need thirty eight types of state law enforcement?