In EFFORTS TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF misdemeanant warrants in their areas and collect fines during tough economic times, some counties are offering amnesty to speeding drivers and other scofflaws who missed their court dates and didn’t pay their fines on time — or really, just a second chance.

Montgomery County recently announced its first amnesty period to residents after unresolved traffic citations and the warrants associated with them ballooned during the last several years as the county’s population grew.

“Frankly there’s no way that we could serve 50,000 warrants,” said Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon. “What we are doing is dismissing the warrant fees and proceeding on the underlying offense.” under the county’s temporary amnesty program, off enders who had racked up hundreds or thousands of dollars in fines and fees for failure to appear in court only had to pay $199 to get their cases settled, unless a statute mandates a higher minimum fine — a significant savings. While the county will only receive less than half of that fine, it’s still more than nothing. By the second week of the program, the response was big enough that Ligon decided to extend the carrot for another two weeks, before following it up with the stick of a warrant roundup.

“After I’ve given them every opportunity to get in to compliance, we’re probably going to take the worst ones in every (precinct) and actually try to have those people served, just as we would on a felony warrant,” he said.

Ligon worked with the county’s justices of the peace and sheriff ’s office on the trial program after taking notes from similar programs in Lubbock, Lee, Harris and other counties, and said he believed that inter-county cooperation is central to the success of the program. He recommended that other counties considering amnesty programs approach each agency in the beginning, rather than developing a plan in one office and hoping other offices follow through.

“There is an element of cooperation that is required of the community,” he said. “Keep your lines of communication open between the District Attorney’s office and the local justice of the peace, as well as the constables. … It’s fairly easy once everyone’s on the same page.” As of County’s deadline, it was too soon for Ligon to estimate totals for fee collections. The program’s budget ran less than $1,000, though, and he said he would consider it a success if he recovers the costs. While acknowledging the hardships of the recent economic downturn, Ligon said his main goals for the amnesty period were to settle as many warrants as possible and clean up the system to make way for a new warrant database. He’s hopeful funding will emerge for a database that would allow law enforcement to confirm warrants at late-night traffic stops when some constables’ offices are closed.

The legal framework to reduce fines falls within the broad authority granted to prosecutors to negotiate pleas and to the judges who accept them.

“Each case is considered on its own merits, and each judge has the right to set the fine,” except for fees set by the state, said Brazos County Justice of the Peace George Boyett, whose county has offered amnesty windows in each of the last few years during the spring and fall. While amnesty programs in texas date back to at least the mid-1990s, the counties that are using them have just begun doing so in the last five years or so.

“If the circumstances are that there’s an amnesty program, you can set the fine accordingly,” Boyett said, though he is unlikely to grant leniency in certain cases, such as for repeat off enders who park in handicapped spaces or pass school buses. Ligon exercises similar discretion, and said he would not grant fee reductions in cases that involve domestic violence, minors in possession or class C assault.

While Brazos County garners consistent publicity about its amnesty periods in local print and broadcast media, not many residents there take advantage of the window of opportunity, Boyett said, adding that he feels more resources could go toward the warrant roundups that follow the amnesty periods.

“Some people respond, but I’m talking, you know, single-digit, maybe double-digit numbers is all that will respond to it,” he said. But Boyett still supports the amnesty periods and describes them as a positive way for judges to fairly reduce an offenders’ cash outlay. He said the effectiveness of the Brazos amnesty program’s comes down to public awareness and that he does not think it encourages offenders to delay a trip to the courthouse until an amnesty period is offered.

“They just take advantage of it on the spur-of-the-moment,” Boyett said. Plus, people with warrants who put off a court appearance still run the risk of being arrested. Other counties also have experimented with their own versions of amnesty periods.

El Paso County takes a two-phase approach to its amnesty periods for bad check writers, first threatening to run suspects’ names in newspapers and later arresting some of the worst offenders. The program originated at a meeting between county officials and the El Paso Police Department, which had planned to publish a list of people with outstanding traffic warrants. The county offered to help pay for the advertisement if it could add hot-check warrants to the list.

“We noticed that people were coming in and paying after the insert was published,” said Assistant County Attorney Kent Sutton, who is chief of the criminal unit.

The ad was effective for both jurisdictions, and in recent years the county has held its own periodic ad campaign and amnesty program. It offers bad-check writers the chance to clear their names before they are published in the Sunday editions of two newspapers. The advertising costs about $8,000, though Sutton said he was surprised at the county’s ability to negotiate down the price of the ads. The program kicks off with a press conference, followed by an amnesty period and extended hours at the windows where offenders can pay. Y ear-round, people suspected of theft by check are automatically mailed a notice when the check is reported. If they settle it during an amnesty period, they only owe the amount of the original check, the merchant’s bad-check fee up to $30, a fee of $10 to $75 collected by the county and any fines required by statute.

“We dismiss the case if they pay all those things up front,” Sutton said, which saves the offender the potential cost of bond, attorney’s fees, court costs and probation fees.

Even with the smaller payments, El Paso County collected more than $195,000 during its program in May, the second amnesty period in the last 12 months. The hot-check sweep that followed netted 23 arrests, and Sutton emphasizes the importance of cooperation with law enforcement.

“One thing you might want to give them is some of your more recent ones,” Sutton said. “The more recent the check is, the more likely it is we’ll locate the check writer.”

While they haven’t eliminated El Paso’s outstanding hot-check warrants, Sutton said the amnesty periods have been an effective way to increase collections. If there is a political risk to reducing penalties for misdemeanor offenders on the lam, officials in El Paso, Brazos and Montgomery counties say they haven’t felt it.

“It’s beneficial in it gives the money back to a lot of local businesses,” Sutton said.