Has anyone read the AG opinion regarding no more reserve investigators for county attorneys. Our office carries the commission of several non-paid investigators. A couple of them are retired peace officers, who contribute a lot to the work that we do. What does this mean for small district attorney offices like ours? Is there any interest in making an change in the law for us? Does anyone know the politics, if any, behind this?

You need to pay them a salary in order for them to be considered peace officers.

Reserve DA investigators are not an issue in our county, but where they are perhaps a little cooperation with sheriffs and constables (both of whom can have reserve deputies, with commissioners court cooperation) and some sort of cooperative working arrangment your sheriff's and constables' reserve deputies might turn out to be good members of your team....

I heard an interview on the radio last week where the guy was talking about the "reserve force" who were unpaid peace officers activated in an emergency/disaster situation. He said that reserve officers are allowed to carry weapons.

I remember because the conversation was kinda out of place on the "sports talk" radio station and I had tuned in to hear about the Houston Rockets playoffs game.

When I started my LE career in the early 80s all reserve officers were unpaid. Many departments only provided them with badges and ID cards. They had to buy everything including their uniforms. That is still the case today in some of the small rural agencies.

Many departments would not allow reserves to work alone and even made distinctions in the uniforms and badges that reserves wore. Most departments would not allow their reserves to carry weapons when they were off duty.

That all changed in the late 80s and early 90s. That's when I first heard about departments paying their reserves. They were considered part-time employees. That's also when I first heard that agencies were reporting their reserves to TCLEOSE as Peace officers. That allowed reserves to carry their weapons 24/7 and carry outside their jurisdictions too (see PC 46.15).

Many departments started allowing reserves to work off duty jobs. Off duty jobs had exclusively belonged to full time paid officers in the past. This allowed agencies who didn't pay their reserves to give them compensation, but it also started a huge controversy and ultimately led to an AG Opinion that said reserves and part-time Peace Officers can't work off duty jobs unless they have a PI License.

This is still a huge issue even today. Some police associations and full-time officers don't think reserves should be allowed to work off duty jobs. Some have gone to the extreme of filing complaints with their local County and District Attorneys. I've even heard of some reserves being arrested.

TCLEOSE first addressed the reserve CA/DA investigator issue in the late 90s. Dr. Dozier (former executive director of TCLEOSE) spoke about it at a TDCAA Investigator school in the late 1990s. I think it was the 1998 school in Austin. He specifically said that CA/DA offices can not commission reserve officers.

I remember a chief investigator, who was seated near me, that had a "OH S--T" look on his face. That office now pays their former reserves, so they are considered part-time peace officers.

Dr. Dozier also told us that there is no such thing as a "non-paid regular". You are either a Peace Officer (full-time/part-time) or a Reserve Officer, period.

The opinion does not say how much the reserves need to be paid. I guess they could be paid a "salary" of $10 a year. However, that would be an obvious end-run around the statute, which makes me uncomfortable.

After reading the history of this issue, I understand the motives of those seeking an opinion. Also, it looks like any effort to change the law would be met with opposition.

As always, thanks for your responses.

The city that I live in pays their reserve officers $10.00 an hour and requires them to work 20 hours a month.

Remember that in Texas - unlike many other jurisdictions -- a peace officer is a peace officer is a peace officer and there is no distinction between the hourly requirement for licensure of persons commissioned as reserves from those commissioned as regulars. Training requirements for a basic, intermediate and master peace officer license apply to all categories, regardles of the type of commission. This was not true 30 years ago but is true now.

Before you start paying "reserve investigators" a $10/year salary, you might check with your work-mans comp. and law enforcement insurance carriers to see what that will do to the rates.

Better check FLSA (minimum wage) laws, too.