18 year old Commissioned Security Officer and CHL

[srothstein]

Last time I checked, you can carry a gun in your employment once you hit 18. Some police departments allow for "under 21" officers so long as they have a bachelors degree as well. As of this year if I'm not mistaken, even Bexar County has lowered it's age requirement for a deputy (Read below for more details) to 19 & 9 months. The age requirements are ridiculously across the boards here in Texas. Age requirements for jobs carrying a gun vary from 18-26yrs of age as I have seen during my job searching. (Even lower if you consider military.) I have no problem with an age requirement, but I would rather see 21 across the board. I am sick and tired of seeing "Age Requirement: 23 (due to insurance)," as to me, it seems unfair disqualification from jobs for young people that can otherwise legally perform such jobs. How can one employer compared to another say that a 21yr old can work for this company, but not another, due to age requirements. Can anybody else say discrimination based on age?

How can a 18yr old get a Class A Intrastate CDL, but not be allowed to get a job until he's 25 due to "Insurance requirements?" That kind of stuff really throws me off. Sure employers can have restrictions, but age restrictions are hurting young people looking for work. You can get your Intrastate CDL at 18, your Interstate CDL at 21, but no job until you're 23, or 25, or 26?

I have long believed that we need one age of majority for all laws in Texas and the US. Either you are an adult or you are not. Currently, we have so many different definitions in various laws that no one can tell who is an adult. In some penalty clauses of the Penal Code, an child is anyone below 12. You are adult enough to consent to sex if you are 15 and the other person is less than 3 years older than you, but at 17 the 3 year limitation goes away. Youa re an adult for jail (instead of juvenile) at 17, but cannot leave your home without parental permission until 18. Add voting, drinking, buying long arms and handguns, enlisting, marriage, etc. and you end up with a hodgepodge of laws on who is an adult. And my daughter is a child until her 26th birthday according to the Affordable Care Act for health insurance purposes.

This is one of my biggest complaints with the law and trying to determine who is an adult. I almost do not care which age we pick, but we need to pick one age for all definitions of adult and stick with it.

-Bexar County
I was recently told by an official at Bexar County, that the hiring age has been reduced to 19 & 9 months, which includes firearm qualification to carry as an officer. The two main Deputy positions, are Adult Detention Deputies, and Patrol Deputies. To become a Patrol Deputy, I was informed that you must be a Adult Detention Deputy. The real kicker, is that they no longer offer peace officer training for Deputies. MEANING, as explained to me, that if a deputy wants to work patrol, he must save up his own money, and pay to attend the Police Academy on his own time, should he be able to with his work schedule. (Doubtful in my mind.) What happened to the taxes going to the seventh largest municipality in the United States? Can the county not afford to train it's own officers? What might they require next? For Deputies who want to patrol buy and maintain their own patrol vehicles?

Two minor corrections for you. First, the taxes collected by the seventh largest municipality in the US go to the city of San Antonio and have nothing to do with the county. Bexar County collects its own taxes. Second is a minor point on who pays for patrol cars. While the sheriff's department pays for patrol cars for its deputies, many Constable deputies do pay for their own car. It seems to be traditional in Texas that way.

There are several reasons that BCSO may not train peace officers themselves. It could be the cost, but it is much more likely that it is for other management factors. For example, it does help show who is determined enough to deserve the promotion and will stay on. I have seen schemes of this nature where they pay for their own training but get reimbursed the tuition expenses if they complete a year of patrol service with the agency. TABC used to do it the other way, and paid for people who needed it, including paying them as agents while in the academy. It meant that it cost us about 25,000 in out of pocket expenses (direct salary and tuition, no benefits cost factored in) for each agent. It does not take many changing their mind or flunking out to get managers looking at ways to change that. Their answer was an agreement that the agent would pay back expenses if they left before their first anniversary (and I do not know if they ever actually went after it or not - no one quit while I was there in that period).

[EEllis]

I would think part of the reasoning is that when working he is under the "supervision" of the security company. Sometimes this means nothing, other times with a quality company they put a lot of effort into making sure their officers are able and competent. One could hope that if an employee showed signs of some issue that the company would fire or remove them from duty. At least it's an argument one could make.