If you owe money on a traffic ticket or are wanted for a felony you’ve got a two-week window to turn yourself in and get your warrants taken care of this year before local law enforcement begin their annual warrant roundup.
Some 11,037 warrants have been issued by the county, justice and district courts this year, ranging from Class C Misdemeanors all the way up to felonies.
“We try to do this once a year,” Sheriff David Jones explained. “We publish the warrants to try and get compliance, people to come in and take care of the warrants before we go out and look for them at their residence, their place of business, wherever they might be. If we have a warrant, we’re going to be looking for them so this gives them a chance to come in and take care of it on a much easier basis.”
The warrant roundup is a statewide effort, Jones explained, but the local roundup runs a bit later than the others in the state due to the timing of the rodeo. Locally, both the municipal courts and the county courts participate in the roundup, and LIVE! is exclusively publishing the county warrant list.
Sheriff Jones explained that those wanted on warrants for offenses for which they can be arrested will be booked into the jail if law enforcement picks them up.
“That warrant is an order from the judge to pick that person up and place them in jail until the warrant’s taken care of,” Jones said. “A lot of them—like your traffic offenses and things—they can report to the court compliance officer and arrange to make payments or take care of it and that warrant will be recalled…”
This year, the list includes felony warrants, which have been omitted in the past because they’re all arrest warrants, Jones said, meaning they will all result in a visit to the county jail. In publishing them this year, law enforcement officers are hoping for some compliance, and Jones said he’s not really worried about people going on the run after they see their name on a wanted list.
“Well, they can run, but they can’t hide,” he said. “Eventually, we will catch up to them. This just gives them a chance to take care of it, maybe get an attorney or a bondsman and turn themselves in where they can be bonded out and not have to spend a long time in jail.”
The warrant list, which is accessible by clicking on the “warrants” button on the LIVE! homepage, will be up until May 1. Those who are listed in the searchable database will have time while it’s active to get their warrants expediently handled. After that, law enforcement will be out in full force to serve the warrants not cleared in advance.
“When we start this, we will assign people to warrant service and even our regular deputies on duty will be assigned warrants to specifically go look for,” Jones said. “We put as much manpower as we can towards this effort during this time along with the city and it’s generally been successful.”
Warrants can be searched by name and include, date of birth, type and case numbers. The type of warrant describes the issuing authority, which relates to what type of offense the warrant is tied to.
Justice of the Peace precincts 1-4 warrants are all Class C Misdemeanor warrants, the lowest category of offense. These include things like traffic tickets and petty theft.
If you have questions regarding a warrant issued by one of the Justices of the Peace (JP), contact that office.
JP 1 Kay Longest, 325-659-6444
JP 2 J.P. McGuire, 325-949-2415
JP 3 Fred Buck, 325-657-9922
JP 4 Eddie Howard, 325-659-6424
County warrants include Class A and B Misdemeanors, as well as a few felonies. Questions on those should be directed to the court compliance office, 325-659-6469.
Those with felony warrants should contact either the district clerk’s office at 325-659-6579 or the court compliance office.
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