Texas Warrant Round Up Begins Feb. 25th

Texas residents with outstanding tickets got one last chance to pay their fines Friday before officers come hauling them out of homes and workplaces starting at the crack of dawn Saturday morning to answer ignored or forgotten citations.

According to a local CBS affiliate in Dallas and Fort Worth, law enforcement officers will begin knocking on doors at 6AM tomorrow- and while Class “C” misdemeanors are included in the Texas warrant roundup, authorities say most of the offenders are guilty of unpaid parking tickets. Local attorney Brad Friedman spoke to CBS about the initiative, and said that the majority of people getting popped tomorrow simply forgot to pay the tickets in the first place:

“A lot of them affirmatively just blew it off and now have forgotten that they blew it off or they got the ticket, put it in the drawer… a lot of the cities give you 21 days to respond to the ticket, and they just failed to do so and forgot about it.”

Dehlalia Hererra, office manager at Dallas law firm Meyer and Friedman said the period leading up to the Texas warrant round up is always busy for local lawyers:

“I’ve had someone come in with like 25 warrants… Lots of tickets that they’ve just gathered up… just haven’t taken care of. Now, with the warrant roundup, they’re scared that they’re gonna show up to their place of employment.”

Authorities didn’t disclose how many people are wanted or being sought in the Texas warrant roundup, but in addition to jail time and fines, the outstanding violations can prevent residents from re-registering vehicles.