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July Warrant Roundup Yields Hundreds of Arrests in the Arlington Area

Have you been the recipient of a Texas traffic ticket? If you didn’t successfully fight the charges or pay the full penalty imposed upon you, there may have been a warrant issued in your name.

Hundreds of residents in the Arlington area found this out the hard way in July. For several years now, Texas law enforcement agencies around the state have teamed up to launch a coordinated effort to close out arrest warrants for traffic crimes and other offenses. The annual Arlington Warrant Roundup has been so successful that some municipalities have turned it into a quarterly event.

As the July warrant roundup kicked off in Arlington, there were approximately 146,000 outstanding Class C misdemeanor warrants among area residents. Prior to the warrant roundup, city officials mailed some 20,000 warning letters to alleged offenders. Those with a warrant in their name who received no warning were still subject to arrest.

An individual with a warrant in his or her name can be arrested at any time, in any place. This includes at work, at home or even at school. Arrests can occur outside of the scheduled warrant roundups, although arrests are more common during these periods of increased police activity.

If you aren’t sure whether or not there is a warrant out in your name, you can check the list of outstanding warrants maintained by the city. As a general rule, if you receive a traffic ticket and do not challenge it in court or take other action, it’s only a matter of time until the police could come knocking.

Hundreds of Arlington residents were arrested over the month of July and into early August, as the latest warrant roundup concluded August 3. But, if you have unaddressed traffic citations and avoided arrest this time, you’re not out of the woods yet: another Arlington warrant roundup is scheduled for October.

If you have been issued a traffic citation, it’s not too late to save yourself from an embarrassing arrest, possible jail time and other penalties, even if a warrant has already been issued in your name. If you deal with the problem proactively, you may still have the opportunity to fight the charges against you with the help of a Texas traffic warrant lawyer. If you’ve been ticketed for a traffic violation, get out ahead of the upcoming Arlington Warrant Roundup and get in touch with a lawyer today.

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