DAN MORALES 

/LrrORNEY GENERAL 

QBffice of the ST4ttornep General 

Sbtate of Ill;exae 

March 10, 1995 

Honorable Mike Driscoll 

Hanis County Attorney 

1001 Preston, Suite 634 

Houston, Texas 77002-1891 

Dear Mr. Driscoll: 

Opiion No. DM-333 

Re: Harris County SheritYs authority to call 

up resetve deputy she&H to provide security 

personnel to separate govemmeintd or private 

edtie& and related questions (RQ-750) 

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