The lookup includes peace officer, county jailer and telecommunicator license status, employment history and training. IT staff also implemented a unified login to complement existing online tools.
This is one move in the agency’s modernization plans to create more transparency using data, and it was built in-house, leadership said in recent meetings.
Although agency leadership said there had been some concerns about creating a public-facing database, the information has always been public and available through requests made by email or other means.
During the Aug. 7 commission meeting, Director of Government Relations Gretchen Grigsby shared that of more than 8,000 public information requests, about 80 percent were for these records. She said it would be interesting to see in a year how the new database would offset that workload.
Information includes:
- Name
- License number
- Agencies where employed
- Education hours (such as college coursework)
- Continuing education hours
Private information isn’t included, and officers in highly sensitive or undercover work may request exclusion. The database requires registration, and users may be tracked by TCOLE administrators.
Senate Bill 1445 mandated this move and several others, including amending TCOLE’s functions to “set and enforce minimum standards for law enforcement.”
The Public License Lookup was just one tech requirement, as is creating a closed database for law enforcement agencies to review work histories. Overall, the estimated costs for bill-related technology were $461,650 in 2024 and $314,100 in 2025, according to the bill’s financial impact statement.
