Cop Watch: State Agency Bulletin Reveals Texas Police Officers May Not Know Current Laws

You leave your house to go to work, to school, to the grocery store.  And you assume that the police officer parked at the intersection or standing watch on the corner knows his stuff.  He or she is there to protect and serve, and you’re confident that they know the laws that they are enforcing.  Right?  Right.

And you’d be wrong.  Wrong.

Earlier this month, the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Education (TCLEOSE) issued a state-wide bulletin.  The bulletin went to every police academy across the state — all 103 of them.  In it, the Commission warns those who are teaching police officers their Texas law that they teach the cadets using CURRENT LAW. 

That’s right.  Apparently, police academies have been teaching officers from outdated law books and they’ve been using curriculums that don’t jive with the current state laws and regulations. 

How long has this been going on?  For years, apparently — since this brouhaha started over the Texas Sodomy Law, which was removed from the Texas lawbooks over six years ago.  Seems a Texas police officer told a gay rights group that the sodomy law was still good, an academy class was still teaching the law to academy students. 

That one conversation has led to this Commission Bulletin being released this month.

Now, let’s see what the media folk turn up — surely some enterprising reporter will be combing thru the Police Academy textbooks and teaching curriculums to see what else the police are being taught today ….