Texas Constitution & Statute Penal Code
Title 1. Code of Criminal Procedure
Chapter 61. Criminal Street Gangs
DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
(1) "Combination" and "criminal street gang" have the meanings assigned by Section 71.01, Penal Code.
(2) "Child" has the meaning assigned by Section 51.02, Family Code.
(3) "Criminal information" means facts, material, photograph, or data reasonably related to the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity.
(4) "Criminal activity" means conduct that is subject to prosecution.
(5) "Criminal justice agency" has the meaning assigned by Article 60.01 and also means a municipal or county agency, or school district law enforcement agency, that is engaged in the administration of criminal justice under a statute or executive order.
(6) "Administration of criminal justice" has the meaning assigned by Article 60.01.
(7) "Department" means the Department of Public Safety of the State of Texas.
(8) "Intelligence database" means a collection or compilation of data organized for search and retrieval to evaluate, analyze, disseminate, or use intelligence information relating to a criminal combination or a criminal street gang for the purpose of investigating or prosecuting criminal offenses.
(9) "Law enforcement agency" does not include the Texas Department of Criminal Justice or the Texas Youth Commission.
Added by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 671, Sec. 1, eff. Aug. 28, 1995. Subd. (1) amended by and Subds. (7), (8), (9) added by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 1154, Sec. 2, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.
CRIMINAL COMBINATION AND CRIMINAL STREET GANG INTELLIGENCE DATABASE; SUBMISSION CRITERIA.
(a) Subject to Subsection (b), a criminal justice agency shall compile criminal information into an intelligence database for the purpose of investigating or prosecuting the criminal activities of criminal combinations or criminal street gangs.
(b) A law enforcement agency in a municipality with a population of 50,000 or more or in a county with a population of 100,000 or more shall compile and maintain in a local or regional intelligence database criminal information relating to a criminal street gang as provided by Subsection (a). The information must be compiled and maintained in accordance with the criminal intelligence systems operating policies established under 28 C.F.R. Section 23.1 et seq. and the submission criteria established under Subsection (c).
(b-1) Information described by this article may be compiled on paper, by computer, or in any other useful manner by a criminal justice agency or law enforcement agency.
(c) Criminal information collected under this chapter relating to a criminal street gang must:
(1) be relevant to the identification of an organization that is reasonably suspected of involvement in criminal activity; and
(2) consist of:
(A) a judgment under any law that includes, as a finding or as an element of a criminal offense, participation in a criminal street gang;
(B) a self-admission by the individual of criminal street gang membership that is made during a judicial proceeding; or
(C) except as provided by Subsection (d), any two of the following:
(i) a self-admission by the individual of criminal street gang membership that is not made during a judicial proceeding, including the use of the Internet or other electronic format or medium to post photographs or other documentation identifying the individual as a member of a criminal street gang;
(ii) an identification of the individual as a criminal street gang member by a reliable informant or other individual;
(iii) a corroborated identification of the individual as a criminal street gang member by an informant or other individual of unknown reliability;
(iv) evidence that the individual frequents a documented area of a criminal street gang and associates with known criminal street gang members;
(v) evidence that the individual uses, in more than an incidental manner, criminal street gang dress, hand signals, tattoos, or symbols, including expressions of letters, numbers, words, or marks, regardless of how or the means by which the symbols are displayed, that are associated with a criminal street gang that operates in an area frequented by the individual and described by Subparagraph (iv);
(vi) evidence that the individual has been arrested or taken into custody with known criminal street gang members for an offense or conduct consistent with criminal street gang activity;
(vii) evidence that the individual has visited a known criminal street gang member, other than a family member of the individual, while the gang member is confined in or committed to a penal institution; or
(viii) evidence of the individual's use of technology, including the Internet, to recruit new criminal street gang members.
(d) Evidence described by Subsections (c)(2)(C)(iv) and (vii) is not sufficient to create the eligibility of a person's information to be included in an intelligence database described by this chapter unless the evidence is combined with information described by another subparagraph of Subsection (c)(2)(C).
(e) In this article:
(1) "Family member" means a person related to another person within the third degree by consanguinity or affinity, as described by Subchapter B, Chapter 573, Government Code, except that the term does not include a person who is considered to be related to another person by affinity only as described by Section 573.024(b), Government Code.
(2) "Penal institution" means a confinement facility operated by or under a contract with any division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, a confinement facility operated by or under contract with the Texas Youth Commission, or a juvenile secure pre-adjudication or post-adjudication facility operated by or under a local juvenile probation department, or a county jail.
Added by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 671, Sec. 1, eff. Aug. 28, 1995. Amended by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 1154, Sec. 3, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.
Amended by:
Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 258, Sec. 18.05, eff. September 1, 2007.
Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 736, Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2009.
Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 1130, Sec. 36, eff. September 1, 2009.
TEXAS VIOLENT GANG TASK FORCE.
(a) In this article, "task force" means the Texas Violent Gang Task Force.
(b) The purpose of the task force is to form a strategic partnership between state, federal, and local law enforcement agencies to better enable law enforcement and correctional agencies to take a proactive stance towards tracking gang activity and the growth and spread of gangs statewide.
(c) The task force shall focus its efforts on:
(1) developing a statewide networking system that will provide timely access to gang information;
(2) establishing communication between different law enforcement agencies, combining independent agency resources, and joining agencies together in a cooperative effort to focus on gang membership, gang activity, and gang migration trends; and
(3) forming a working group of law enforcement and correctional representatives from throughout the state to discuss specific cases and investigations involving gangs and other related gang activities.
(d) The task force may take any other actions as necessary to accomplish the purposes of this article.
(e) The Department of Public Safety shall support the task force to assist in coordinating statewide antigang initiatives.
(f) The task force shall consist of:
(1) a representative of the Department of Public Safety designated by the director of that agency;
(2) a representative of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice designated by the executive director of that agency;
(3) a representative of the Texas Youth Commission designated by the executive director of that agency;
(4) a representative of the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission designated by the executive director of that agency;
(5) a representative of the Criminal Justice Policy Council designated by the executive director of that agency;
(6) a representative of the office of the attorney general designated by the attorney general; and
(7) three local law enforcement or adult or juvenile community supervision personnel and a prosecuting attorney designated by the governor.
Added by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 492, Sec. 1, eff. June 18, 1999. Renumbered from Vernon's Ann. C.C.P. art. 61.07 by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 1420, Sec. 21.001(14), eff. Sept. 1, 2001.
For more information visit:
http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/ or
http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/CR/htm/CR.61.htm
Or click here to view a compilation of gang-reglated legislation from other states.
