Morales may be breaking state law with security officers, legislators say

AUSTIN (AP) - Texas Attorney General Dan Morales may be breaking a 1991 state law limiting the number of peace officers he can employ and commission, according to two legislators.

Morales has 24 commissioned law enforcement officers on his staff. Rep. Toby Goodman, R-Arlington and a critic of Morales' office, said that may be illegal because state law says the attorney general can employ and commission only five officers.

"It's obvious he's exceeding the authority," Goodman told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for a story published Thursday.

Responding, Morales said the legal limit isn't on the number of commissioned officers he employs but on the number his office commissions.

He said he has commissioned only five peace officers, as the law states, and has hired the others commissioned by other agencies.

"There is no prohibition in state law which limits the number of peace officers that may be employed by the office of the attorney general," Morales said. "We have employed additional peace officers ... in order to carry out the criminal investigative responsibilities given to us by the Legislature."

Morales' force of peace officers has been under scrutiny since the Star-Telegram reported that he spent $15,000 on handguns and a shotgun for the officers, some of whom spend part of their time as personal bodyguards for the attorney general.

Goodman and Rep. Kevin Bailey, D-Houston, the sponsor of the 1991 law, said that law limits both the number of peace officers commissioned and employed by Morales.