Our county sheriff is often call upon to provide "civil standby" duties usually in situations where a divorce litigant wants to remove personal belongings from the home and suspects that the other party will but up a fight. The sheriff feels that CCP 5.04 and 5.045 authorizes this practice. I HAVE MY DOUBTS. Sure if the officer is called to a domestic violence situation already in progress, then the officer can act as 5.045 dictates...but what if the (as in these cases) the violence is only prospective??? The only case I can find is the Poteet v. Sulivan, 218 S.W.3d 780, 2007 Tex App. LEXIS 828(Tex. FortWorth 2007).

Do Texas law enforcement officers have any legal legs to stand on in cases of "prospective violence." AND should they be out there risking a 1984 Civil suit so that someone can get personal belongings out of a home???

Any ideas about this...is greatly appreciated...Fred

I have no idea whether or not this is relevant but it seems like there could be a community caretaking angle to it:

Art. 2.17. CONSERVATOR OF THE PEACE.  Each sheriff 
shall be a conservator of the peace in his county, 
and shall arrest all offenders against the laws of 
the State, in his view or hearing, and take them 
before the proper court for examination or trial. 
He shall quell and suppress all assaults and 
batteries, affrays, insurrections and unlawful 
assemblies. He shall apprehend and commit to jail 
all offenders, until an examination or trial can 
be had.

"Each sheriff shall be a conservator of the peace in his county,..."

So, how come there wasn't one of those guys around the afternoon that I told my wife that we owned a new boat?

Maybe some sheriffs take there job a little more seriously than others. LOL

It's been standard practice everywhere I've ever worked. Not real popular with the troops sometimes, but standard practice nonetheless.

Don't all agencies commonly deploy to any 'prospective violence' situation in their jurisdiction? From rivalry football games to the trial of high-profile offenders? Isn't that their job - to keep the peace rather than just clean up the mess afterward? Why would this be different? Isn't it common knowledge that domestic situations are more likely to explode than just about anything else?

I had a murder/suicide once with two uniformed officers standing right there with their heads stuck where the sun don't shine. NOT doing their job would seem a greater risk factor when it comes to lawsuits IMHO.

quote:

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Originally posted by John Talley:
"Each sheriff shall be a conservator of the peace in his county,..."

So, how come there wasn't one of those guys around the afternoon that I told my wife that we owned a new boat?

Maybe some sheriffs take there job a little more seriously than others. LOL

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I know this is a very serious topic, and to that end, it was and still is (AFAIK) standard practice in Harris, Fort Bend and other counties for deputies to do a civil standby in these types of situations.

That being said, your boat story is hilarious. So when are we going fishing?

Family 86.003 and 86.004 are also statutory justifications for this--but they are premised upon temporary ex partes and final protective orders--which means there's already been some showing of family violence.

I could see why the officers don't want to do this without the ex parte or final protective orders--divorces are ugly. But I think it's pretty routine.

So when are we going fishing? [/QUOTE]

The rest of the story:

And, as often the case seems to be, I lost the wife and the boat not too long thereafter.

And, man do I miss the boat.