Major Warrant Round-up happening in North Texas

[TexasStooge]

From Today through Saturday, 40 cities in Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Johnson, and Tarrant Counties participate in a biggest warrant round-up, this is mainly for unpaid traffic tickets. More info to come soon.

Any of your metro areas doing any warrant round-ups?

[george_r_1961]

Yes we have them here from time to time. Squads of police will fan out accross the city serving warrants for anything from unpaid fines to murder. For most misdemeanors though u have a good chance of being released without having to post bail IF you take care of the matter promptly. Wait for them to come and get you and you will be posting bail.

[Janice]

Do you ever notice all cities and states do a lot of cleaning up right before campaigning starts.

[TexasStooge]

Police begin warrant crackdown

By CYNTHIA VEGA / WFAA ABC 8

IRVING, Texas — Police and city marshals will be out in force this week looking for people with outstanding warrants.

Irving is one of 40 cities taking part in the crackdown.

From today until Saturday violators can expect a knock at the door from the authorities.

They can expect to be arrested and to face a city judge for arraignment, possible jail time and to begin the process of paying off what for the most part are traffic tickets, which can carry fines of up to $500.

In all, six counties are participating: Collin, Dallas, Denton, Johnson, Rockwall and Tarrant.

Clearing these warrants will result in a boost in revenue for local authorities.

Local agencies conduct similar roundups several times each year, but Irving city spokeswoman Laurie Kunke said this week’s is the largest of its kind to date, and the first to involve so many jurisdictions.

Constance White, court administrator for McKinney, said officers from each of the 44 participating agencies can arrest residents in their city even if their warrants come from other cities that are involved.

"They always have that jurisdiction, but at this time we've decided to do a concentrated effort," Ms. White said.

Violators who are arrested before the roundup ends Friday must appear before municipal court judges for arraignment and disposition of their cases.

The Dallas Morning News contributed to this report.

[x-y-no]

I've always found it odd that they announce these things.

They do the same thing with sobriety checkpoints, and the announcements always come off to me like "if you're planning to drive drunk, don't take US1."

[george_r_1961]

I've always found it odd that they announce these things.

They do the same thing with sobriety checkpoints, and the announcements always come off to me like "if you're planning to drive drunk, don't take US1."

And I bet they catch people anyway lol

[x-y-no]

And I bet they catch people anyway lol

Yes, amazingly they do. Guess drunks don't watch the news, or if they do they forget what they hear.

[TexasStooge]

Are Dallas warrant round-ups a waste of time?

By CHRIS HEINBAUGH / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - Dallas City Marshals are trying to serve 400,000 outstanding warrants worth $82 million through warrant round-ups that occur every few months.

However, questions have risen if the round-ups are a waste of time and money after many scofflaws walk away and never pay a dime.

Among those caught New Years Day was Melissa Reyes who had five outstanding traffic warrants worth $1,600 in fines. But after one night in jail, a judge wiped the fines away and she was released for time served.

"People owe us money," said Mayor Laura Miller. "They don't pay. They think they can get away with it. We issue the warrant and we want them to pay the money."

The law says judges must give at least $50.00 credit for time served, but some wipe away thousands.

Dorothy Hill had six warrants worth $1,800, but also never paid a dime after she served a short amount of time.

Juan Rangel had twelve warrants for traffic and assault worth $3,600 and was ordered by a judge to pay on one warrant through a payment plan. The rest of the penalties were wiped away as time served,

Of the 23 people arrested New Years, 18 walked away the next day with time served.

Eighty of the 100 warrants served worth $25,000 were wiped clean without even a sentence of community service.

"To let a lot of these people go with just time served is not fair," said Elba Garcia, Dallas City Council.

However, the administrative judge for Municipal Courts said his judges are just doing their job.

"We're not here to make money for the city," said Judge Ray Robinson. " We're here to see that justice is carried out fairly under the law."

But some said they think judges need to get tougher. Of the over 124,000 warrants served in the last fiscal year, 91,148 were wiped out for time served, which makes 73 percent.

But Judge Robinson said many can't pay and it could cost the city more to keep them in jail.

"The majority of those you'll see down there are basically on their last nickel in a lot of cases," Judge Robinson said.

But Joe Polino, Dallas City Marshal, said he thinks offenders are working the system.

"There has to be a down side to not paying your traffic tickets or your outstanding warrants," he said.

Though the numbers indicate the majority will be right back on the street without paying anything, Polino said they will continue rounding them up.