Governor Greg Abbott has signed several measures law enforcement say would protect police officers while also leading to reform.
House Bill 9 requires jail time for people who knowingly block emergency vehicles or the entrance to hospitals. Frederick Frazier, a Dallas police officer and Texas FOP legislative director, says that measure stemmed from last year's demonstrations downtown.
"During the riots, you guys saw a lot of our vehicles burned to the ground," he says. "A lot of our vehicles were trapped. That's been a huge problem, not only here but across our state."
House Bill 2366 sets a felony for people who use fireworks or laser pointers to distract officers.
House Bill 1900 and Senate Bill 23 deal with "defund the police."
Senate Bill 23 requires cities with a population of more than one million people to hold an election before moving money from their law enforcement budget. Frazier cited a poll commissioned by the Texas Municipal Police Association showing 72% of residents have a favorable view of law enforcement. He says this bill would have prevented Austin from reallocating money that had been spent on police.
"They would have never passed that defunding mechanism if they had let the voters vote on that," Frazier says. "Their crime rate is at a precedent they have never, ever seen in the State of Texas. That is all because of the defunding mechanism they put in place."
House Bill 1900 would affect cities of at least 250,000 that reduce their law enforcement budget; the state would deduct sales tax revenue, prevent the city from increasing property taxes, and any part of a city annexed within the past 30 years could vote to leave the city.
"The reason this bill is so needed is we saw a very weak city council vote against overtime for officers," Frazier said of the Dallas City Council, which voted to keep police funding the same in September but cut the budget for police overtime. "That overtime is not only needed for this city, but those criminals come in from other cities to commit crimes here."
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow NewsRadio 1080 KRLD
Facebook | Twitter