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Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre announced today that the Sheriff’s Office will begin rolling out a new notification system for upcoming court dates.
The message will also give the recipient the option to pay the fine associated with their citation or summons in lieu of attending.
The system, Webre said, is aimed at curbing the large number of contempt of court warrants issued for people who failed to pay or attend court.
“In recent years, we’ve noticed a large number of people being arrested for contempt of court after failing to pay a fine or show up for court,” said Sheriff Webre. “Through our own research, we found many of those people had simply forgotten about their court date. This new notification system will remind those individuals of their upcoming court date and prompt them to contact us if they have any questions.”
When an individual receives a traffic citation, for example, the citation is a summons to appear in court on a date specified on the citation.
In lieu of appearing in court, the citation recipient may instead pay the fines and costs associated with the citation.
If the recipient does not pay and then also fails to show up in court, a contempt of court warrant is issued for the person’s arrest.
Then, during the next encounter the person has with law enforcement, such as a traffic stop, deputies will see that person has an active warrant and the person would be subject to arrest.
With this system, those who have not paid their fine within 10 days of their court date will be sent a text message reminding them of the court date with the amount owed. The system will also offer them the option to pay the fines and costs in lieu of going to court. If the recipient opts to pay, they will be sent instructions on how to pay by phone, in-person or online at www.LPSO.net.
Webre said he hopes this curbs the contempt of court arrests made in the parish.
“Our goal for this proactive notification system is to curb or eliminate arrest warrants for people who forget their court date,” said Sheriff Webre. “Additionally, we implore those who cannot pay their fines to contact us prior to their court date instead of simply not showing up for court.”
LPSO will use their own records of individual cell phone numbers to issue the text messages.
Deputies ask individuals for their cell number during encounters to make sure they have the most recent contact information for individuals.
Those with phones capable of receiving MMS messages will receive the notification.
The first incoming message will be free. All others will be subject to charges by individual carriers, if applicable.
LPSO will start using the system this month and will test it over the next several months before rolling it out to all individuals for which cell phone numbers are available.
Only a small group of people will receive the messages during the testing phase, and even after the launch, only those with up-to-date cell numbers will receive the notification.
LPSO warns that failure to receive a text notification does not absolve anyone from their responsibility of paying fines and costs or attending court.
