QBffice of the ST4ttornep General
Sbtate of Ill;exae
DAN MORALES
/LrrORNEY
GENERAL March10,1995
Honorable Mike Driscoll Opiion No. DM-333
Hanis County Attorney
1001 Preston, Suite 634 Re: Harris County SheritYs authority to call
Houston, Texas 77002-1891 up resetve deputy she&H to provide security
personnel to separate govemmeintd or private
edtie& and related questions (RQ-750)
Dear Mr. Driscoll:
You ,ask whether section 85.004 of the Local Government Code authorizes the
Harris County Sheriff “to call a reserve deputy [sheriQ into service for the purpose of
providing security personnel to a separate govemmental or private entity that will pay the
deputies on an employee or independent contmctor basis.” Elsewhere in your request,
you chsracterize the contemplated artangement as one where *a resetve deputy sheriff is
assigned by the SheritT to be employed...as securhy personnel with a sepamte
govemmentd or private entity,”
ktion 85.004 gcmrdy empowers a commissioners court to authorize the &tiff
to appoint reserve deputies and to call them “into service if the sheriff considers it
nemsary to have additional officers to preserve the peace and enforce the law.” Section
85.004 in no way alludes to the sheriB’s provision of deputies, resem or otherwise, to
other public or private entities which will themselves pay the deputies. Clearly, section
85.004 does not itself provide the authority you ask about-nor, we note, do any of the
other provisions of law cited in your brief. We answer your first question in the negative.1
You ask additionally whether the licenstue requiretnents of the Private
Investigators and Private Security Agencies Act, V.T.C.S. art. 4413(29bb), apply to
reserve deputies assigned as seauity permute1 to other entities, and also who could be
held liable for injuries s&bred or inflicted by them while aC$ttg in such capacity. In view
Honorable Mike DriscoU - Page 2 (DM-333)
of our response to your Srst question-that neither section 85.004 nor any other law you
have cited authorizes the sheriB’s assignment of reserve deputies to other entities as
security personnel-we do not think it appropriate to attempt to reach these questions
here. Since counties and county officers have only such powers as are expressly granted
by legislation or necessarily to be inferred therefrom, we be&eve that it must be established
as a threshold matter whether and if so ,under what circumstances the use of reserve
deputies you ask about is authorized3
SUMMARY
!kCth 85.0&f hCd -Ult code, Which &XlUdy
empowers a commissioners court to authorize the sheriff to
appointment reserve deputies and to call them “into setvice if the
sheriff considers it necessary to have additional officers to preserve
the peace and enforce the law,” does not in itself authorize the Harris
CountyShaifftocallaresavedeputysheriffintosaviaforthe
purpose of providint3 securhy personnel to a separate Sovemmental
or private entity that will pay the deputies on an employee or
independent contractor basis.
DAN MORALES
Attorney General of Texas
JORGE VEGA
Fii Assistant Attorney General
SARAH J. SHIRLEY
Chair, Opinion Committee
Prepared by William Walker
Assistant Attorney General