Learn More About Texas County Arrest
The State of Texas is the second most populous state of the country which is predominantly multi-ethnic and multi-cultural in origin. This very uniqueness of the state perpetrates a rise in criminal activities. Consequently, the state has a considerably higher rate of crime as compared to the other states of the nation. The State has now introduced an open records system which enables the residents of Texas to take adequate precaution timely. It also helps the police as well as the Sheriff’s departments of each county to receive a timely warning by the inmates of the county themselves should they come across a wanted criminal in their neighborhood.
Reasons for accessing County Arrest Records:
Conducting a background check on a prospective employee or business partner is an effective way of protecting yourself against offenders. Although the mere existence of an arrest record is not enough ground to deny employment, yet it helps you rest easy particularly where the safety of your loved ones is concerned. Statistics show that almost 1,111, 384 crimes were committed last year in the State with 121,000 offenders being arrested on charges of violent offenses alone. The presence of arrest records does not necessarily mean that you are checking out a criminal. Civil offenses amounting to a variety of tort as well as non tort cases can also form a basis of arrest. White Collar and Cyber crimes are relatively newer avenues of crime and you need to be particularly wary of people arrested on such charges.
Apart from checking out the background of other individuals, you may find it imperative to conduct an arrest record search for yourself. More than once, an employee may request you for your own arrest record instead of finding out the information himself. Getting a VISA or other documents necessary for traveling abroad can be withheld if you do not furnish a copy of your own arrest record as well. You may also be unaware that your pending ticket has been converted into an arrest warrant and you are now considered to be an offender according to the law of the state. The best way of meeting your objective is to conduct a search for your own arrest record. You cash then request the police department or the Sheriff of your County for a copy of your arrest record.
State Repositories:
Most of Texas county arrest records are public records as well. The Department of Public Safety (DPS) serves as the repository of criminal records for the State. All the counties are required to gather criminal as well as arrest records from different locations within its administrative unit. The entire information is then compiled at each of the 254 counties of the state before being handed over to the DPS for public retrieval. Texas County Arrest Records are also made public. This is quite unlike a few other states where arrest records are not always shared with the public unless he has an authorization. The Crime Records Service division is dedicated to developing and implementing programs for correction of offenders. CJIS or the Corrections Tracking System (CTS) is another prominent division of the Texas Criminal Justice Information system. The department is managed by the Department of Criminal Justice (DCJ) in accordance with Chapter 60, Code of Criminal Procedure.
Criminal as well as arrest records are maintained by this department as well. It is possible to obtain information about a specific county arrest record in the State of Texas by mailing the Crime Records Service by accessing http://ncju@txdps.state.tx.us. Texas Department of Public Safety can also be written to at PO Box 4143, Austin, TX 78765-4143. You also need to mention ‘Attn: Criminal History Inquiry Unit’ within the address if you want your mail to reach the Access and Dissemination Bureau of the DPS. Information is also available over the phone at (512) 424-2079. Deferred adjudicated cases or arrests which have resulted in conviction can be viewed by submitting a request form to the Crime Records Service. All state repositories are limited to a certain extent as they only contain information on Class B misdemeanors or greater crimes committed within the limits of the state of Texas. A standard request form can be downloaded and printed by accessing http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/administration/crime_records/crNewsletters/crNews3rdQtr12.pdf.
The Crime Records Service division maintains a separate secure website for authorized personnel and entities. Educational institutions as well as various health organizations are eligible to visit https://secure.txdps.state.tx.us/DpsWebsite/index.aspx in order to go through the arrest records of all the counties of Texas. Voluntary charitable organizations and housing authorities are also eligible to view this site if they so wish. Government organizations, building authorities as well as transportation departments and divisions concerned with public safety are entitled to view the arrest records from the secure website as well. Juvenile Probation departments of the State are entrusted with the safety of its inmates and try to discourage them to commit offenses in future. It is their duty to check out the arrest records from the secure website of the Crime Records service from time to time in order to ascertain that the juvenile records are not being displayed by the online resource of the state. If you are uncertain about the eligibility of your organization to view this website, you are free to call up at 512-424-2474 and clarify your doubts. The general members of the public are perfectly within their rights if they check out the county arrest records by logging in to https://records.txdps.state.tx.us/DpsWebsite/index.aspx.
Local Law Enforcement Resources:
The best way of conducting an arrest search in the state of Texas is to visit the Sheriff’s office of the concerned county especially if you are concerned with petty cases of misdemeanors and traffic or local rules violations. You may also be able to access certain information by visiting the official websites of the Sheriff. A list of Most Wanted Sex offenders can be obtained from the Bexar County Sheriff’s resource on http://www.co.bexar.tx.us/bcsheriff/ . Free parole notices are displayed within the websites of the law enforcement authority of Denton County (http://sheriff.dentoncounty.com/)and Guadalupe County Court. (http://www.co.guadalupe.tx.us/guadalupe2010/). The later offers an additional facility of searching for probation absconders as well. Liberty County (http://www.libertytxsheriff.com/), on the other hand, also offers the option of searching through a database of arrested probation violators for free. The city of Austin is the capital of Texas and is located within the Travis County. The Internet resource for the County also offers the facility of searching the web for warrants of arrest apart from providing the usual services for public information.
Most wanted criminals as well as arrest records for citizens detained on account of minor offenses and traffic rule violation may be obtained by visiting the sheriff’s departments personally as well. The contact address and phone number of some of the more prominent counties of Texas are given below.
Harris County Sheriff’s Office, 1200 Baker Street, Houston, TX 77002, Phone: 713-221-6000, Website: http://www.hcso.hctx.net/. Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, 1 Criminal Justice Drive, Conroe, TX 77301, Phone: (936) 760-5800, (281) 364-4200 ext. 5800, Website: http://www.mocosheriff.com/. Collin County Sheriff’s Office, 4300 Community Ave., McKinney, TX 75071, Phone: 972-547-5100, Website: http://www.co.collin.tx.us/sheriff/. Wise County Sheriff's Department,200 Rook Ramsey Drive, Decatur, Texas 76234, Phone: (940) 627-5971, Website: http://www.sheriff.co.wise.tx.us/. Travis County Sheriff’s Office, Keith George Ruiz Building, 5555 Airport Blvd, Austin, TX 78751, Phone: (512) 854-9396, Website: http://www.co.travis.tx.us/sheriff/, Tarrant County Sheriffs Office, 200 Taylor, Fort Worth, TX 76102, Phone:(817) 884-3099, Website: http://www.tarrantcounty.com/esheriff/. Hays County Sheriff's Office, 1307 Uhland RoadSan Marcos, Texas 78666, Phone:(512) 393-7800, Record can be reviewed by calling up at (512) 393-7824, Website: http://www.sheriff.co.hays.tx.us/.
Online Resource for Texas County Court Arrest Records:
Information from the Texas database of Judicial System can be retrieved by accessing the official website http://www.courts.state.tx.us/. It is possible to view a list of records from each different kind of county court. The drop down box provided against the court type allows you to select the specific type of court for running a search. The search can be made by opting for data from the County court of law, County probate court, County Constitutional court as well as the courts of appeals. Records from both civil and criminal county courts of appeal are returned enabling you to obtain the desired arrest record in no time at all. You also need to select the appropriate county from the list of 254 counties provided against the field for search. It is also possible to limit the search by opting for a specific city from the list provided as well. The search results can be sorted according to the county name, population or the type of county. The results returned can be viewed from the resource itself or can be saved and exported to MS Excel if you so wish.
County Courthouse Contacts:
It is also possible to obtain specific information about all Texas county arrests by visiting the local county courthouses in the region. The contact addresses as well as the phone number for a few county courthouses are given below:
Dallas County Court of Law, 600 Commerce St, Ste 550, Dallas, 75202, Phone: (214)653-7556. Houston County Constitutional Court, 401 E Goliad Crockett, 75835, Phone: (936)544-3255, Austin County Court of Law, One E Main St, Bellville, 77418-1598, Phone: (979)865-5911, Armstrong County Constitutional Court can be mailed at: P O Box 189, Claude, 79019-0189, Bandera County Constitutional Court can be mailed at: P O Box 877, Bandera, 78003-0877, Phone: (830)796-3781, email ID: bandcojdg@indian-creek.net, Calhoun County Court of Law, 211 S Ann St, 2nd Fl, Port Lavaca, 77979-4203, Phone: 361)553-4640, Cherokee County Court, 135 N Main St, Rusk, 75785, Phone: (903)683-6497, email ID: craig@cocherokee.org, Dickens County Constitutional Court can be mailed at: P O Box 179, Dickens, 79229-0179, Phone: (806)623-5532, El Paso County Court of Law, 500 E San Antonio, #802, El Paso, 79901-2420, email ID: ccervantes@epcounty.com, Phone: (915)546-2011, Jefferson County Court at Law, 1149 Pearl St, Beaumont, 77701-3638, Phone: (409)835-8470, Knox County Constitutional Court can be mailed at: P O Box 77, Benjamin, 79505-0077, email ID: medquivel@srcaccess.net, Phone: (940)459-2191, Newton County Constitutional Court can be mailed at: P O Drawer J, Newton, 75966-3249, Phone: (409)379-5691, Parker County Court at Law, 1112 Santa Fe Dr Weatherford, 76086, email ID: brandy.ochs@parkercounty.tx, Phone: (817)598-6179, Rockwall County Court at Law, 1101 Ridge Rd, Ste 206, Rockwall, 75087, Phone: (972)204-6410, Sutton County Constitutional Court can be mailed at: P O Box 1212 Sonora, 76950 email ID: county@sonoratx.net, Phone: (325)387-2711.
Information Available From County Arrest Records:
The arrest records for Texas as the other states of the United States give detailed information about both the offender as well as the offense. The name of the offender along with his physical description is included within an arrest record. Although the attributes like height, weight and hair color may not be adequate for proper identification of a criminal at large. Most of the arrest records are accompanied by a photograph revealing the face of the offender as well. The nature of the crime whether it is a petty offense like a simple traffic rule violation of speeding or a major crime amounting to murder is explained within the arrest record as well. The last known address of the person wanted by the law often makes it easier for the law enforcement agencies to track them down. Habitual criminals seldom use their own name, preferring to operate under the cover of aliases instead. The police are required to list all the known aliases of an offender in the arrest record. This helps in retrieving proper information about an offender even if you are ignorant about the actual name of the arrested person. The fine amount or the bond amount is required to be included in the arrest record by the law enforcement agency.
Information about Texas County Arrest records can also be retrieved by creating an account with the Public State resources managed by the Department of public safety. The final web page of the system is expected to display a new User Id and password so that you do not need to go through the same process again and again. The user ID along with the password is mailed to the e-mail address provided by the user as well. You do require to ensure that you have completed the sign up process before trying to conduct a search for arrest records.
The searching process is fairly easy and self explanatory. All you need is to enter the right data against the field. You may wish to see the previous search results conducted by you when you log in next. This facility is also available in the public record system of the DPS. Clicking on the ‘Criminal History’ and ‘Previous Search’ buttons present in the navigation bar will enable you to view your earlier searches. You need to click on the search number in order to view the results returned by the searches conducted before. The search results will continue to be displayed up to a week of conducting the arrest record search.
Copies Of County Arrest Records:
It is possible to obtain copies of County arrest records from the office of the county court’s clerk. Obtaining both certified as well as non certified copies of an arrest record is possible through the same office. Arrest records for Houston County can be obtained by contacting the clerk of the court at Houston County Courthouse, 401 East Houston Avenue, 1st floor, Crockett, Texas 75835. Each copy usually costs $15 with an additional charge for certification. The other counties of Texas have almost identical facilities and contacting the clerk of the respective counties will help you in obtaining a hard copy of your arrest record.
Expunction of Texas County Arrest Records:
Cleaning or erasing your arrest record is known as expunging the record. Most juvenile records are expunged by the State itself and Texas is no exception. The county arrest records can be expunged from the state repository either by deletion or restriction of those records so that they cannot be viewed by the members of general public. No record is sealed off automatically, you need to petition for a proper expungement process. The entire process is similar to a law suit and is treated as a civil suit although the concerned petitioner may have a criminal arrest record against him.
Expunging Juvenile records are not very difficult. The law of Texas recognizes the need for rectification of minor offenders and will normally agree to seal his/her record so that the person can make a fresh start with the commencement of adulthood. The legal system of Texas allows expunction of arrest records which had not resulted in conviction. Any county arrest record of an offender found guilty of murder or manslaughter cannot have his/her record expunged even if he/she was not an adult at the time of the crime. Deferred adjudication on misdemeanors of Class C can be expunged in Texas particularly if the juvenile offender had completed his period of supervised community service successfully.
Getting an expunction is a bit more difficult for an adult. But in this day and age of computers and online systems it is wise to try for an expunction as you might have to reveal the existence of your arrest record to your employer, business partner, spouse or even if you wish to enroll in an educational institute otherwise. The laws of Texas permit you to expunge the charges only in certain circumstances. All county arrest records can be expunged if the charges against it were absolved by the court. Similarly the arrest records can be expunged satisfactorily if the court had dismissed the charges against you as well. An acquittal by the Texas Court of Criminal appeals also makes you eligible to get your county arrest records expunged.
A petition for non-disclosure is another way of getting your arrest record expunged particularly if you do not belong to the category mentioned above. This course of action is only available to individuals who have completed the deferred adjudication probation along with winning the non disclosure petition. Either of the options can result in your arrest record being sealed and you can now safely deny the existence of your arrest record.
Completing a straight probation does not make you qualify for an expunction. Final criminal convictions cannot be erased from the Texas repositories either. A DWI conviction is never sealed off and serving a period in prison will negate all chances of getting your record expunged by the judicial authorities. You have an outside chance of having your arrest record erased for good even if you are found to be ineligible for an expungement. You can appeal for a pardon from the governor or the president although obtaining a pardon from the head of the government is an extremely rare occurrence.
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