← Back to bills and search results
2025 · Regular session · Senate bill
SB434
SB434 allows the Harris County Hospital District’s board to employ and commission its own peace officers.
Official caption: Relating to the authority of the Harris County Hospital District to employ and commission peace officers.
Official report lists Senate author(s): Miles. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.
Bill highlights
Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.
- SB434 allows the Harris County Hospital District’s board to employ and commission its own peace officers.
- The existing jurisdiction provision includes district-owned or district-controlled property, adjoining streets, rights-of-way over or through the property, and easements in it.
- The bill became law without the governor’s signature on May 29, 2025 and took effect September 1, 2025.
What does it do?
SB434 allows the Harris County Hospital District’s board to employ and commission its own peace officers. It adds Harris County to the same Health and Safety Code provision that already named the Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar and El Paso hospital districts. It also adds Harris County’s commissioned officers to the Code of Criminal Procedure list of peace officers. The authority is optional: the bill does not order the district to hire a specified number of officers. Final law; Prior hospital-district authority.
The existing jurisdiction provision includes district-owned or district-controlled property, adjoining streets, rights-of-way over or through the property, and easements in it. Existing law also gives officers the referenced Chapter 14 arrest authority within their jurisdiction and permits a warrantless arrest there for an offense involving injury or harm to district-owned or controlled property. SB434 adds Harris County to that framework; it does not rewrite those jurisdiction and arrest provisions. Retained jurisdiction and arrest provisions.
The bill became law without the governor’s signature on May 29, 2025 and took effect September 1, 2025. Although the bill contains an immediate-effect alternative, the official history records September 1. Official history; Vote certification and effective-date clause.
What changed along the way?
The introduced, Senate committee, engrossed, House committee and enrolled versions have the same operative text. The amendment index lists no amendments and both committees reported without amendments. The Senate passed the bill April 24 and the House May 16, 2025. All text versions; Amendment index.
Although the enrolled bill reprints the long list of peace-officer categories, its change to that list is adding Harris County Hospital District officers in Article 2A.001(17)(A). It does not newly create all the other listed police and investigator positions. Exact addition in the enrolled text.
For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.
Official bill versions
Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.
Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?
The April 4, 2025 fiscal note anticipates no state fiscal implication, but says there could be a fiscal impact on the Harris County Hospital District if it chooses to employ and commission officers. It gives no dollar estimate. “No state cost” should not be read as “no local cost.” Fiscal note.
The district gains another way to organize law enforcement for its facilities, potentially benefiting patients, visitors and staff. Hiring, equipping and managing officers can require district resources; the bill supplies no new appropriation or quantified savings. The statute grants authority, but this review does not claim that the board has exercised it or that a particular staffing plan has been adopted.
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.
