Warrant Roundup Targets Mistaken IDs

Names erroneously listed among wanted

Commentary
by Bruce Felps

The periodic statewide warrant roundup kicked off this past weekend in an effort to arrest people who have unpaid traffic and other citations past the due dates.

The sweep was meant to target people so delinquent in their payments that warrants had seen issued, but not served, for their arrests. Thus the name “warrant roundup.”

City officials in Abilene, though, took the measure a step further when they released a list of names that included people with warrants for unpaid tickets and about 540 people whose court dates had yet to arrive, according to the Abilene Reporter-News.

That right there is being proactive.

An embarrassed Abilene City Manager Larry Gilley told a reporter with the Reporter, "It was an unfortunate mistake, and we regret any inconvenience it may have caused."

Apparently an inconvenience as great as an unwarranted trip to jail did not result from the roundup nor the published list, so whew. But the embarrassment of having to apologize to 540 people probably will cause Abilene officials to take greater care when compiling the next warrant roundup list for publication, and a little municipal responsibility can only be a good thing.


Bruce Felps owns and operates East Dallas Times, an online community news outlet serving the White Rock Lake area. He’s been to Abilene. Once.
 

Copyright FREEL - NBC Local Media
Contact Us