Angel v. State

In Angel v. State, 740 S.W.2d 727, 734 (Tex. Crim. App. 1987), the Court addressed the propriety of the defendant's arrest by Tomball City police officers for a traffic offense committed outside the city limits of Tomball but within Harris County. Angel, 740 S.W.2d at 728. Overruling prior case law which limited a city police officer's jurisdiction to the boundaries of the city, the Court concluded "Articles 998 and 999 grant city marshals and city police officers county-wide jurisdiction to arrest offenders." Id. at 736. (overruling Weeks v. State, 132 Tex. Crim. 524, 106 S.W.2d 275, 276 (Tex. Crim. App. 1937)). Hence, the Court determined the Tomball City Police acted within its jurisdiction because "Tomball is within Harris County." Id. The provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure restrict the authority of sheriffs to their own county. "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." TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 2.17. There are no similar provisions for the other law enforcement officers of this state who are also designated as peace officers, like sheriffs and their deputies, by Article 2.13. It would be absurd for this Court to presume the Legislature intended to restrict the geographical limits of the authority of a sheriff and not that of his deputies, or to presume the Legislature intended to restrict the geographical limits of the authority of a sheriff and his deputies, and not that of the other peace officers of this State. See Boykin v. State, 818 S.W.2d 782, 785 (Tex. Crim. App. 1991). The Court considered whether municipal police officers acting outside the city limits may arrest someone for a traffic violation without a warrant. Angel, 740 S.W.2d 727. The Court examined the question under Article 14.01 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and former Article 6701(d) of the Uniform Act Regulating Traffic on Highways (now TEX. TRANSP. CODE 543.001). Article 6701(d) of the Uniform Act Regulating Traffic on Highways read as follows: "Any peace officer is authorized to arrest without warrant any person found committing a violation of any provision of the Uniform Act." The Court noted that although the two statutes together seemed to grant peace officers unlimited geographic jurisdiction for making warrantless arrests for offenses committed in their presence or view, "the authority to act may not necessarily define the geographic scope of that authority. That geographic scope, if absent from the statute granting authority to act, must find its source in some other statute...or be controlled by common law." Angel, 740 S.W.2d at 732).