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Assault against a security
officer
By Jeff Moore
ASSIST STATE BOARD VICE PRESIDENT
It has been my pleasure to Chair the �Assault Against a Security Officer Committee� for ASSIST. We have begun to notice that since 2003 when this law was created reductions in reported cases of assault have been received. This can be attributed to one of two things: that we are not hearing about as many of the cases that are going on or that the actual numbers of assaults are being reduced. I believe that when the law was passed what we all had in mind was to see that security officers would not be used as punching bags anymore. Moving forward to today we still see some cases coming through so I would like to again go over the law to make sure everyone has a very clear understanding of it and its purpose.
The Assault Against A Security Officer Law, Texas Penal Code 22.01b (1) (3), was passed in 2003 and made it a 3rd degree felony to assault a security officer while in uniform, on duty and causing bodily injury. Prior to this, it would have been a �Class A Misdemeanor�. This new law made assaulting a security officer the same as assault against a peace officer while on duty. Looking at the two professions, this law only makes sense. A security officer�s life and safety is worth the same as a police officer�s, no more or no less. Before this new law was passed, security officers were basically unprotected under the law. It was as if no one cared for his or her safety. Those days are over.
We all owe our �Champions of Security� and lifetime members of ASSIST, Senator Mike Jackson and State Representative Pat
Haggerty a very big thank you for being instrumental in getting this law as well as others passed.
I still receive calls from security officers and company owners asking why a 3rd degree felony did not get charged when their security officer got touched or pushed down. Everyone needs to understand that there must be bodily injury for the 3rd degree felony to be charged. Some examples of bodily injury are red marks around the neck, bruises, lacerations, open wounds and/or broken bones. These types of injuries would all constitute that the 3rd degree charges be filed.
For the most part more security officers and company owners are telling me that today the proper charges are being filed and that is a great improvement from where we were a few years ago. We have seen a few isolated cases where the responding police officer refuses to file the proper charges and sometimes we do have to go up the ladder to make this happen. Most important, do not forget, that the DA�s office has to accept these charges. You must always be willing to fight for your officer�s rights when the time comes and if you are having problems such as this that is when you should call us.
If you are a company owner, manager or supervisor please make sure that if one of your security officers is assaulted, you do everything you can to make sure that your officer�s rights are protected and that the criminal gets the maximum the law will allow.
I have really enjoyed serving on this committee and I look forward to continuing my service to all of our ASSIST members as well as our non-members. If you need to contact the �Assault Against A Security Officer Committee�, please e-mail me at
[email protected] or call me at (281) 332-1622. Be careful and stay safe.
Jeff Moore
ASSIST State Board Vice President
Assault Against a Security Officer State Chairperson
LEAPS Houston, TX, Chairperson
ASSIST Gulf Coast Region Executive Vice President
Blue Moon Investigations Security & Protection
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