February
1, 2001
SB
215 (Bernsen) Fact Sheet:
Against
increasing penalties for evading arrest
Presented by the ACLU of Texas
and the Sunshine Project for Police Accountability
The ACLU of Texas and the Sunshine Project oppose SB 215 because police may charge “evading arrest” to cover police misconduct in the field, so increasing penalties for that offense ensures some individuals who committed no crime will be charged with a felony.
Current status of Texas law:
Presently using a vehicle to “evade arrest” is a Class A misdemeanor, jumping up to a state jail felony if it is a second offense.
SB 215 makes the following
changes:
This bill amends Section 38.04(b) of the Texas penal code so that evading arrest in a vehicle becomes a state jail felony on the first offense, and a third degree felony on the second offense.
Upping punishment for ‘evading’
invites abuse
If someone has committed a crime and evades arrest, then certainly they deserve to face the consequences. But this criminal charge is a special case compared to theft or assault. Human Rights Watch called evading arrest one of three “contempt of cop” charges that are frequently used to discredit potential complainants who’ve been victims of abuse.[1] In some cases “evading arrest” may be the only charge against an individual. In other words, no crime is alleged except for resisting an arrest for no crime.
If “evading” is the only charge against a person, the obvious question arises, evading arrest for what? Indeed, one of the ways police accountability advocates ID possible police misconduct cases is to look for incidents where an individual was only charged with evading arrest. If SB 215 passes, the likelihood that someone will be charged with a felony as a simple retaliatory tactic heightens immeasurably.
Sometimes police
threaten "evasion" or other contempt of cop charges to get permission
to search a vehicle in the field. Increasing penalties for “evading” creates a
tougher threat to coerce someone to open their trunk, forcing them to give up
their civil liberties to avoid spurious prosecution.
Amend
SB215 to make it better
The ACLU and the Sunshine Project oppose increasing the penalties in this bill. But if you believe they should be increased, then amend SB215 to state that evading arrest may not be prosecuted as a stand-alone crime, but only in conjunction with another criminal charge.