(Austin) -- The Texas agency that regulates the training of police officers statewide has taken action amid reports that police academies may be teaching laws that have been struck down.
The action comes after a police officer told a gay advocacy group that a recent academy class was still teaching the Texas Sodomy Law, which was struck down by the United States Supreme Court more than six years ago.
The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards & Education (TCLEOSE) sent out a bulletin to all 103 police academies statewide, warning them to make sure they are using current law books and updating their teaching curriculum so that outdated laws are not being taught to new and current police officers.
"It's almost like I wasted forty years to get rid of that law," said longtime gay rights activist Ray Hill of Houston. He said he has spent decades battling Texas Penal Code Section 21.06, which outlawed any sex act between people of the same sex.
The nation's highest court ruled the law unconstitutional after two Houston men were arrested for a sex act in their own apartment after deputies rushed in their front door. (The exact case is Lawrence v. Texas, 123 S.Ct. 2472).
Hill said the lack of oversight of police academies teaching such illegal laws is allowing biases to continue. "It's not surprising that law enforcement officers have a little difficulty hearing the edicts of the United States Supreme Court. They not only do that with gay folks but they do that to a lot of folks," said Hill
Timothy Braaten, executive director of TCLEOSE, launched a statewide audit of all 103 police academies when he learned of the police officer's claims from a reporter. "We've asked our people on the auditing group: Take a look and see what they're teaching," said Braaten.
He said all academy instructors should know to teach their classes using current law books, but he conceded that some smaller academies may be using old material. He blamed "ineffective instruction," as opposed to a lack of oversight by his agency.
When asked if he is comfortable that TCLEOSE is doing enough to spread the word about laws that have been struck down, he said, "I think the only way this agency could ever accomplish that is if we taught all the academies."
Along with the statewide audit of all academies, an alert was posted on the section of the TCLEOSE website for academy instructors. Prior to this controversy, that section of the web site contained bright red letters that read, "Check here often" but the new wording is more specific, Braaten said.
He said the law still appears on Texas law books because the legislature has yet to repeal the law since the court decision. However, he said most instructors simply read along in the law books in front of their class, so they should be taking that opportunity to remind officers the law was struck down.
The issue was first reported by an officer with a small north Texas police force, who reported the illegal law being taught to the Resource Center Dallas. In a written statement, Associate Executive Director Cece Cox, who is a lawyer, said,
It is ironic that the very people charged with enforcing law choose to ignore the law by continuing to claim and to teach Texas Penal Code 21.06 as valid."
She continued,
Attempts to justify its teaching by stating that it is still on the books is a flagrant disregard of the law. I hope there is some system of accountability for what appears to be such willful disregard of current law."
For Houston's Ray Hill, who was involved with the Supreme Court case, he's hoping that no one is arrested and brought before a judge because of the errant academy classes. "Maybe the judge can read a law book if cops can't. But they ought not be teaching it. That only exacerbates the problem," he said.
Braaten said that the early stages of his agency's audit found all academies seemed to be teaching the law correctly. At the Houston Police Academy, Assistant Chief Brian Lumpkin said his staff was found to be teaching the law correctly. Since Houston was the center of the court case to begin with, most officers are aware the law was struck down, but Lumpkin said his instructors were pointing to the latest copies of the Texas Penal Code and reading the wording to the class that states the law was struck down.
Braaten said it's a serious issue that all academies should look at since departments teaching the wrong law may open their cities up to lawsuits for violating the civil rights of citizens with an improper arrest for a non-existent law.
For more info: Texas Commission on Law Enforcement
Texas Sodomy Law as it appears in Penal Code today
Comments
I took several classes that were required of police officers, before advancing to ?
I was blown away with how many police officers from Texas did not know anything about search and seizure; the difference in reasonable suspicion and reasonable cause, or the specific meaning of either.
The Exclusionary RuleS were foreign to the guys in blue. I am amazed at the level of ignorance in an area so important to police work.
These officers are enforcing.. what? Their own laws?
Some officers recently forgot that in order to question a handcuffed person, the cops should inform the never charged, or considered to be charged, young man, that he has a right not to incriminate himself.
Oh that dang poisonous tree...
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