The Professional Bondsmen of Texas- Blog

There are two types of counties in Texas regarding the writing of bail.  There are bail bond board counties that regulate bail in counties with a population over 110,000.  In smaller counties, bail is regulated by the local sheriff.   At the annual meeting on November 6-8, 2024, there will be a panel of criminal code county sheriffs who will discuss the process of getting approved to write bail in their county. You can register by  CLICKING HERE .

  Rising Crime:  Undermining Safety, Creating Chaos & Harming City Tax Bases-  Why Is It So Political? by Ken W. Good This article was published in the Attorney at Law Magazine October 7, 2024 Crime has become a political football, kicked back and forth across the electoral playing field. The public is receiving conflicting narratives about crime. One side argues that crime is increasing, while the other claims crime is on the decline — and that any belief to the contrary is driven by mere perception rather than reality. “People will use crime data to say whatever they want,” said Jeff Asher, a criminologist and co-founder of AH Datalytics. “When you don’t have that certainty of having nearly every agency reporting data, it means that you need a lot of literacy to be able to combat items that are being stated in bad faith.” In 2014, California passed Prop. 47, reclassifying a list of felony crimes as misdemeanors. The idea was that defendants would still face accountability, but wi

Six years after California legalized marijuana, the bodies keep piling up. Earlier this year, six men were murdered in the Mojave Desert. Four of the men had been burned after being shot with rifles. In 2020, seven people were killed at an illegal pot operation in Riverside County. Violence like this was supposed to disappear after legalization. Legalization advocates argued that making the drug trade legal would end the grip of the cartels. Instead, the legal market has failed, and the cartels are taking over sizable parts of California and the rest of the country. California's legal drug revenues have fallen consistently, as have those in other legal drug states including Colorado, whose model helped sell the idea that drug money would fix everything. Despite falling revenues, Colorado legislators brag about $282 million in drug revenue. That number may sound high, but it's a drop in the bucket considering the money that the state and cities like Denver are spending on homele

  Jim VanBrederode, a former Gates Police Chief, pointed to the  current state of security measures in stores as an example that things have  gone too far.   “We now have concrete barriers in front of all of our stores, we have blue light  cameras in the parking lots, we have security guards at the front door. You go  to get toothpaste and you’ve got to get the associate to unlock the toothpaste.   This is what we face every day now because we’ve gone way too far on not  being able to take off the streets those that are not going to stop re-offending, ”   VanBrederode says. VanBrederode believes many of the criminal justice reforms that went into place  in 2021 have had a negative impact on the community.   “They (democratic majority) literally went through the whole criminal justice  system and made massive radical changes to create a restorative justice model,  they literally touched everything from the juvenile justice system, the adult  system, the parole system, the prisons, rules

The PBT Annual Meeting is November 6-8, 2024.  One of the topics to be presented at this year's annual meeting will address the issues that come up when a bondsman is seeking to sell his business.  This topic will include issues related to how should the sale be addressed with the local bail bond board, or the sheriff.  Other issues will include such things the run off of the existing bonds still open that were written by the seller at the time of sale. This topic should also include the topic of the things that you should discuss with your attorney if you are in the middle of estate planning.  Some suggestions that an estate planning attorney may propose are inconsistent with what is permissible for a bail bond company in Texas.   If you are in thinking of selling your business or contemplating estate planning, joing us at the Annual Meeting of the Professional Bondsmen of Texas.  The meeting is November 6-8, 2024. You can register by CLICKING HERE .

Jim Alexander, 91, went to be with our Lord on Tuesday October 1st, 2024 in Bowie, Texas. The funeral will be at 3 pm Saturday October 5, 2024 at Hawkins Funeral Home in Boyd with burial at Boyd Cemetery. The family will receive friends an hour prior to the service at the funeral home. Jim's sons Kevin Alexander and David Montgomery will officiate. Pallbearers are Michael Montgomery, Randy Montgomery, Jason Montgomery, Brandon Alexander, Jacob Verdin and Cody Tedrow Honorary pallbearers are Cameron Hurd and Lucas Bayer Jim was born August 27, 1933 to Emmett and Flosie (Flemming) Alexander in Brownwood, Texas. In Fort Worth, Texas 33 years ago, he married Joyce Sinclair Montgomery. Family was very important to Jim, he enjoyed spending time with his sons, and grandchildren. If you knew Jim you knew he wore many hats, from insurance sales, to bail bonds, running a carnival, hauling hay, anything cowboy, or whatever he saw fit that needed done. He was a son, father, brother, uncle, gra

  Before Harris County District Court Judge Kelli Johnson took at least a month off from work for personal matters following a crisis intervention call at her house, she was pulled over for multiple traffic violations and then volunteered to do a field sobriety test. ABC13 obtained a body-worn camera video of the encounter through an open records request. The Harris County Sheriff's Office explained that most of the video is black due to an "obstruction," but the audio is clear. Sgt. Colin McHugh made the initial stop. Johnson: "I'm a judge." McHugh: "You're a judge?" Johnson: "A criminal district judge. Yes." The stop happened at about 8 p.m. on April 12, three days before Johnson found Brian Coulter guilty of murdering his girlfriend's son, whose body was left to rot for a year. She mentioned the case twice during the 45-minute-long encounter and asked a second deputy, who arrived, to give her the Standard Field Sobriety Test (S