We're about to do a warrant round up on hot checks and failure to appear warrants - does anyone know if you can publish the names of those with warrants in your local paper?

John, I know that Montgomery County advertised a Warrant Round-up during the summer. They didn't post the names, however. Keep me posted. We're looking at the same thing here.

I'm also interested if other counties out there send "friendly reminder" letters to people who have outstanding cases. I'm trying to go through our misdemeanor cases from 2004 and clean them up. Now, obviously some of them are lost causes (like the DWI defendant from Washington State), but there are some people that I know are still around town *somewhere*, but local LEO doesn't seem to be too interested in. In fairness, lots of these are for POM < 2OZ, but I'd really like to clear them out of our office!

Cindy Weir-Nutter, Ector County CA does a great job on her hot checks. I know she publishes some things, but I'm not sure what. She would probably be glad to discuss this with you.

What identifiers can we publish in the newspaper with a warrant list? Full name, DOB, just birth year, etc.? Any statutory or caselaw authority? I've looked but can't find anything either way. Thanks in advance.

Here's an excerpt from my research, which also discusses privacy torts and immunity issues. Feel free to contact me if you'd like more info (or have some to offer!)

Arrest warrants and warrant affidavits are public information. Tex. C. Crim. Proc. Sec. 15.26. In addition, “basic information” about a crime is public information per Tex. Gov’t. C. Sec. 552.108(c) (the Open Records Act), including the arrestee’s name, alias, social security number, race, sex, age, occupation, the offense committed, the location of the offense, among other basic information. Hogan v. Hearst Corp., 945 S.W.2d 246, 250-251 (Tex. App. San Antonio 1997); Houston Chronicle v. City of Houston, 531 S.W.2d 177, 186-87 (Tex. Civ. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1975), writ ref’d n.r.e per curium, 536 S.W.2d 559 (Tex. 1976); Tex. Att’y Gen. ORD-127 (1976).