Court Opinion

ID: 9643209
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:22:04.258272+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:58.265119
License: Public Domain

HAWKINS, Presiding Judge
(dissenting).
It is the holding of my brethren that a policeman of any incorporated city within this state may arrest, without warrant, any person found committing the offense of driving, while intoxicated, an automobile upon a public highway anywhere in this state.
To this holding I cannot agree, and respectfully enter my dissent.
The basis of the holding is Art. 803, P.C., which authorizes any peace officer to arrest, without warrant, any person found committing the offense of drunk driving.
It is my opinion that this statute extends no further than to specify new and additional offenses for which arrests may be made without warrants, and in no event was it the intention of the legislature to extend, also, the powers of peace officers to act beyond their respective territorial jurisdictions.
Art. 803, P. C., and Art. 212, C. C. P. authorizing peace officers to arrest without warrant for a felony and a breach of the peace, are not materially different, for each authorizes peace officers to make arrests without warrant. Art. 212, C. C. P. has never by this court been given the construction as authorizing peace officers to make extra-jurisdictional arrests.
*318The authorities, as well as the general rule, are to be found in my dissenting opinion in Minor v. State, 153 Tex. Crim. Rep. 242, 219 S. W. 2d 467, to which I here adhere.
I freely admit that under present conditions some amendment and enlargement of the rights of officers should be made by the legislature, but the law should not be construed to meet the exigency of the occasion, and thereby encroach on legislative authority.
I respectfully record my dissent.