Art. 67.054. SUBMISSION CRITERIA. (a) In this article:

(1) "Family member" means a person related to another person within the third degree by consanguinity or affinity, as described by Subchapter B, Chapter 573, Government Code, except that the term does not include a person who is considered to be related to another person by affinity only as described by Section 573.024(b), Government Code.

(2) "Penal institution" means:

(A) a confinement facility operated by or under contract with any division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice;

(B) a confinement facility operated by or under contract with the Texas Juvenile Justice Department;

(C) a juvenile secure pre-adjudication or post-adjudication facility operated by or under a local juvenile probation department; or

(D) a county jail.

(b) Criminal information collected under this chapter relating to a criminal street gang or foreign terrorist organization must:

(1) be relevant to the identification of an organization that is reasonably suspected of involvement in criminal activity; and

(2) consist of:

(A) a judgment under any law that includes, as a finding or as an element of a criminal offense, participation in a criminal street gang or foreign terrorist organization;

(B) a self-admission by an individual of membership in a criminal street gang or foreign terrorist organization that is made during a judicial proceeding; or

(C) except as provided by Subsection (c), any two of the following:

(i) a self-admission by the individual of membership in a criminal street gang or foreign terrorist organization that is not made during a judicial proceeding, including the use of the Internet or other electronic format or medium to post photographs or other documentation identifying the individual as a member of a criminal street gang or foreign terrorist organization;

(ii) an identification of the individual as a member of a criminal street gang or foreign terrorist organization by a reliable informant or other individual;

(iii) a corroborated identification of the individual as a member of a criminal street gang or foreign terrorist organization by an informant or other individual of unknown reliability;

(iv) evidence that the individual frequents a documented area of a criminal street gang or foreign terrorist organization and associates with known members of a criminal street gang or foreign terrorist organization;

(v) evidence that the individual uses, in more than an incidental manner, criminal street gang or foreign terrorist organization dress, hand signals, tattoos, or symbols, including expressions of letters, numbers, words, or marks, regardless of how or the means by which the symbols are displayed, that are associated with a criminal street gang or foreign terrorist organization that operates in an area frequented by the individual and described by Subparagraph (iv);

(vi) evidence that the individual has been arrested or taken into custody with known members of a criminal street gang or foreign terrorist organization for an offense or conduct consistent with gang activity as defined by Section 125.061, Civil Practice and Remedies Code;

(vii) evidence that the individual has visited a known member of a criminal street gang or foreign terrorist organization, other than a family member of the individual, while the member is confined in or committed to a penal institution; or

(viii) evidence of the individual's use of technology, including the Internet, to recruit new members of a criminal street gang or foreign terrorist organization.

(c) Evidence described by Subsections (b)(2)(C)(iv) and (vii) is not sufficient to create the eligibility of a person's information to be included in an intelligence database described by this chapter unless the evidence is combined with information described by another subparagraph of Subsection (b)(2)(C).

Added by Acts 2017, 85th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1058 (H.B. 2931), Sec. 1.04, eff. January 1, 2019.

Amended by:

Acts 2023, 88th Leg., R.S., Ch. 462 (S.B. 1900), Sec. 11, eff. September 1, 2023.