Texas Code of Criminal Procedure 66.001 – Definitions
Terms Used In Texas Code of Criminal Procedure 66.001
- Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Justice: when applied to a magistrate, means justice of the peace. See Texas Government Code 312.011
- Person: includes corporation, organization, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association, and any other legal entity. See Texas Government Code 311.005
- Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
In this chapter:
(1) “Administration of criminal justice” means the detection, apprehension, detention, pretrial release, post-trial release, prosecution, adjudication, correctional supervision, or rehabilitation of an offender. The term includes criminal identification activities and the collection, storage, and dissemination of criminal history record information.
(2) “Computerized criminal history system” means the database containing arrest, disposition, and other criminal history maintained by the Department of Public Safety.
(3) “Corrections tracking system” means the database maintained by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on all offenders under the department’s supervision.
(4) “Council” means the Criminal Justice Policy Council.
(5) “Criminal justice agency” means a federal or state agency that is engaged in the administration of criminal justice under a statute or executive order and allocates a substantial part of the agency’s annual budget to the administration of criminal justice.
(6) “Criminal justice information system” means the computerized criminal history system and the corrections tracking system.
(7) “Disposition” means an action that results in the termination, transfer to another jurisdiction, or indeterminate suspension of the prosecution of a criminal charge.
(8) “Electronic means” means the transmission of data between word processors, data processors, or similar automated information equipment over dedicated cables, commercial lines, or other similar methods of transmission.
(9) “Incident number” means the unique number assigned to a specific person during a specific arrest.
(10) “Offender” means any person who is assigned an incident number.
(11) “Offense code” means the numeric code for each offense category.
(12) “Release” means the termination of jurisdiction over an individual by the criminal justice system.
(13) “State identification number” means the unique number assigned by the Department of Public Safety to each person whose name appears in the criminal justice information system.