Any peace officer in Texas has full authority anywhere in the county he is commissioned in. A city or county officer has full authority outside of his county for everything except traffic tickets. Nothing in the law mentions any limit on other types of officers writing tickets anywhere else. The only other limit on their authority is that an officer outside his jurisdiction must turn an arrested person over to an officer with jurisdiction as soon as possible.speedsix wrote:...what jurisdiction or authority do college police forces have OFF CAMPUS???
And to confuse you even more consider the following two points:
1. Nothing in the law defines what is meant by an officer's jurisdiction. From the wording, it appears to place some geographical limit on where an officer normally works.
2. University of Houston is a state agency. Their officers are actually state employees with statewide jurisdiction.
While HPD would be the normal agency to handle this, both agencies (as well as Harris County SO) have the legal authority. And professional courtesy would normally allow the first agency to decide whether or not to handle it or turn it over. In a case like this, I would think the university would turn it over to HPD for follow-up, but their officers got to the scene first, so they told the media about it.why isn't HPD doing the investigation since it IS their jurisdiction and they DO have authority where it took place???