Articles Tagged with Kaufman County

Forney is one of the faster growing DFW exurbs. It has quickly become a hotbed of Kaufman County DWI arrests. I used to get a fair number of DWI cases from across Kaufman County, many DPS arrests on the interstate, and then a fair number from Terrell/Crandall/Kaufman etc. It seems that I’m seeing a greater number of DWI arrests from the Forney Police Department. I’m not surprised. Forney is a city seemingly designed to maximize DWI arrests. You can’t walk anywhere, and you certainly can’t walk to any establishment that serves alcohol. I’m not sure why we have the majority of our alcohol serving-establishments next to the interstate, why old downtown Forney (the most walkable area in the city) remains mostly dry.

Forney has it’s own jail, and it is possible to make bail there without being transported to Kaufman. I haven’t figured out why certain arrestees are transported to the county jail and others make bail in Forney. Going to jail anywhere sucks, but the Forney jail/police station is brand new and really clean. Much less risk of getting a resistant staph infection than if you are arrested in Dallas.

Forney does not have it’s own breathalyzer, so if you take a breath test you have to go to Kaufman. By the way NEVER TAKE A BREATH TEST. Kaufman County’s breath test machine is based on 1968 technology. The operator manual admits that today’s version of the Intoxilyzer is no more accurate than it was during the Apollo program. Really, don’t do it.

Some old news from last week, the Kemp, Texas police department is being shut down due to budgetary concerns. This isn’t the first small town Kaufman County PD officer to face massive layoffs. Last year, almost the entire Combine police force was jettisoned.

How will this affect your Kemp PD criminal case? It depends on where these officers go and if they are available to testify in the future. If not, that could present some challenges for the State. Especially for the typical “pull the car over for innocuous traffic offense, find dope” case. You have a right to confront the witnesses against you, cops included.

In the interim, KSO will take over for Kemp PD.

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