KILLEEN, Texas — If you have an outstanding warrant in Killeen, you will have the whole month of December to pay off any fines without being arrested.
On Tuesday, the Killeen-Fort Hood Municipal Court announced that it is offering residents a holiday gift of warrant forgiveness starting Dec. 1 through Dec. 31. You can go to the courthouse, located at 200 E. Avenue D. Ste 1, to pay the fines without arrest.
“It’s a part of the Safe Harbor program where you can resolve your outstanding cases and may even be eligible for alternatives like community service or a reduction in your fine, based on your ability to pay,” Judge Kris Krishna said in a news release.
Krishna told 6 News he is willing to work with people who have outstanding warrants to clean their slate, weather it be through payment plans or even community service hours.
"I want to make them feel more comfortable with taking care of them and if they feel comfortable, they'll do it," he explained. "If not, I'll have to be a little more forceful to go out and get them to take care of it themselves and I do not want to do that, but I have to so I will."
In a YouTube video, Krishna said as a bonus, any warrant fees will be completely waived. All warrants come with a $50 fee.
"The courts gonna lose out on the fee, but the benefit to the court is taking care of these warrants," Krishna told 6 News. "This is a big problem we have and we're really trying to get this under control."
Back in June, the city released an active warrant list and asked Killeen residents to search for their name and see if they have any outstanding warrants. At the time, there were over 4,000 people on the list.
Krishna said the list still has around 4,000 people on it still because more people have been added to it, even though some people came to the courthouse to take care of business.
The people on this warrant list only have Class C misdemeanors, like traffic tickets or code enforcement violations, because those are the only types of cases the city's municipal court deals with.
The court also warned those with an outstanding warrant that if any fees/fines are not paid throughout this forgiveness period, officers will start conducting a "warrant roundup," which is when they target and arrest violators with active warrants.
"If you're out there and you have warrants, there's a good likelihood you might get arrested and have to take care of it that way," Krishna explained. "That's very inconvenient, embarrassing and expensive."
*Note: No, you cannot pay with monopoly money as seen in the video.*