Luis Soberon

Luis Soberon

Senior Policy Advisor and In House Counsel

Luis is responsible for justice policy at Texas 2036. He covers issues across the justice system from the regulation of law enforcement, to the efficacy of state courts, through various reforms in prisons and beyond. In his role as In House Counsel, Luis provides legal support across Texas 2036's various teams.

Posts

Reporting on wandering officers: How other states handle the issue

April 3, 2023
Recent events have revealed serious flaws in the state’s reporting requirements for law enforcement agencies when they dismiss a peace officer. This report, called the F-5 in Texas, lists the circumstances around the officer’s separation from the agency and states whether the discharge was honorable, general or dishonorable. It is intended to address the problem...

Motor vehicle stop data deficiencies: 6 things to know

March 23, 2023
For the second consecutive legislative session, the 88th Legislature is considering recommendations for re-thinking the role of the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, or TCOLE. The Texas Sunset Advisory Commission said the state’s approach to regulating law enforcement was “toothless,” “fundamentally broken” and “largely ineffective.” At Texas 2036, we have been supporting recommendations through our...
Texas judiciary case-level data

Case-level data will drive understanding of court backlogs

March 8, 2023

Texas 2036 Policy Advisor Luis Soberon told House members on Wednesday that both urban and rural areas of the state stand to benefit from an improved, case-level data collection system to understand better court case backlogs. Soberon testified before the House Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence Committee for HB 841, authored by state Rep. Claudia Ordaz,…

The case for addressing wandering officers after Uvalde

February 21, 2023

Update (Feb. 28, 2023): After the publication of this blog, Uvalde CISD filed for a rehearing last week in an attempt to overturn the default upgrade in Arredondo’s discharge status. The first motion was filed on Feb. 24, and a second motion was filed Feb. 27. For Texas to be the best place to live…

Byrd Unit TDCJ

Kudos to budget writers for pay raises at TDCJ

February 10, 2023

Texas 2036 Policy Advisor Luis Soberon applauded budget writers for including “significant pay raises” in their base budgets for Texas Department of Criminal Justice staff in Thursday testimony before the Senate Finance Committee. “The correctional officers and parole officers are at historic turnover rates,” Soberon said. “Retention, as you’ve heard again and again, is an…

Progress made and the work ahead: Sunset Commission and TX law enforcement

January 13, 2023

On Wednesday, the Sunset Commission met to finalize the Sunset staff’s report on the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, or TCOLE. Adopting 16 out of the 17 recommendations before them, much of what happened represents progress on a few key issues, such as improved licensing and hiring background checks, data transparency, and minimum standards for…

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