Texas
From the 50 State Visitor Guide:
Tex. Code Crim. Proc. 2020 §62.001 through 62.408
Registration Triggers and Deadlines:
Registration required for residence of “more than 7 days,” and must register by the 7th day. Updates after 7 days. §§62.051, 62.055.
Transient registrants must report every 30 days. §62.051. Resident registrants making three or more visits of 48 consecutive hours duration to a TX municipality or county other than place of permanent registration must report to local law enforcement. §62.059.
Visitors must register by “the 7th day after the person’s arrival in the municipality or county.” §62.051(a). Per the Texas SOR office, this means a visiting registrant who never remains in any one locality more than six consecutive days isn’t required to register. This SOR office info confirmed April 2021.
Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:
No state-wide restrictions, but local residence and presence restrictions, where applicable, do apply to not-yet-registered visiting offenders. For example, San Antonio has a presence restriction applying to parks. This means you will not be able to set foot in the Riverwalk during your visit.
Duration & updates:
10 years to life. Annual updates.
Most recent visit: April 2025
There is a quirk in the way Texas (or at least the Texas state SOR office) interprets its law that registered travelers should be aware of. Texas is one of quite a few states whose registry laws are written to say that visitors must register by “the [insert # of days here] day after the person’s arrival in the municipality or county.” §62.051(a). Quite a few states have this type of language because, as you can imagine, state legislators don’t invent their own statutes out of whole cloth when writing registry laws. No, they look at what some other states are doing and copy what they like best.
In reading this language you might feel justified in believing that what starts the clock ticking towards your obligation to register would be your arrival in a specific municipality or county, rather than the simple act of crossing the state line. But NO. Every state (other than Texas) that has this type of language interprets it to mean the clock starts ticking when you arrive in their state, and continues to tick for as long as you are in the state no matter what municipality or county you happen to be in. That’s why, for every other state, my advice to you is to assume that the number of days stated in the statute applies statewide.
However, I have called the Texas SOR office to ask this specific question twice, nine months apart, and spoken to two different people (I know they were different people because one was a man and the other was a woman) who both gave me the same answer: Texas interprets its statutory language exactly as written. The clock starts when you arrive in any given county or municipality. Partial days count. If you move on to some other county or municipality before your six days are up (because as I always say, you should avoid using that last day), the clock starts again.
Texas has no statewide presence or residency restrictions, but like so many other states it has local residence and presence restrictions, and where applicable they do apply to not-yet-registered visiting offenders. At the 2023 NARSOL Conference (in Houston) one conference participant pointed out that San Antonio has a presence restriction applying to parks. This means if the conference had been in San Antonio none of us registrants would have able to set foot in the Riverwalk during our visit.
Oh well! You can't visit Riverwalk while you're in San Antonio.
Near the end of April 2025 I entered Texas from Louisiana where I’d just finished my Mardi Gras reconnaissance mission to New Orleans (see Louisiana blog post below). I had two destinations – Houston, where I would spend a day with an old friend of mine (we first met in 6th grade) who now lives in its northwest suburbs; and Mineral Wells (west of Ft. Worth) to have lunch with my son (Note: He neither lives nor works in Mineral Wells, that’s where the restaurant was).
Houston, we have a problem
At my old friend’s suggestion I had made campsite reservations are a local county park and began my Houston time clock there. I went out to dinner with my old friend but when I got back they kicked me out of the park – NOT because of a registry issue, they had a “no car-camping” rule and as always I had no tent. I have only run into a rule like this once or twice in the past, and always at a local park, never at a state or national park. Nevertheless I had to check in at a local Motel 6.
As a courtesy to my old friend I had turned Day 2 of my Houston clock over to him and said, “Show me something in Houston.” But I knew in advance he’d squander that opportunity because he really hates Houston. Instead (believe it or not!) he took me to Padre Island National Seashore which is way down past Corpus Christi, which meant we spent the entire day in the car driving back and forth and saw nothing (he is a terrible driver but I’m relieved to say I’m still alive).
My old friend had his chance and he wasted it. Next time I will visit Houston the way I have started to visit other cities this year – reserve a (reliable) motel room in advance, arrive to spend an afternoon and evening seeing the real Houston, then go out to lunch with him as I’m leaving town. I’ll invite him to tag along with me on that day before but there’s way he’ll go.
Comanche, TX – The town that made me go Hmmm
The following morning, Day 3, was the last (partial) day of my Houston clock. Lunch with my son wasn’t until the following day so I decided to strike out across Central Texas for a day and get myself someplace close to Mineral Wells by that evening. From Houston I followed US 190 northwest until it became SR 36 which is a country highway. Eventually that would take me to SR 16 north to Possum Kingdom State Park fairly close to Mineral Wells.
I’m going to say this and I don’t care you think – Central Texas is not an inspiring place. Many of the ranches do not seem prosperous. Instead I drove though mile after mile of rolling hills and overgrown prairie. There are no points of interest here, neither on my Rand McNally map nor in reality. I drove through the downscale towns of Gatesville and Hamilton.
And then I came to Comanche, TX, at the junction of SR 36 & 16, where I needed to gas up and get supplies. I actually had some trouble finding these basic things there which caused me to drive around this little town for a while in search of my needs.
Wow! – and not in a good way. Still, as a retired city planner I couldn’t help being impressed by this example of how a failing agricultural economy can kill a small town. As I have said before about Indian reservations, where the agricultural economy is good the towns will usually prosper too. Otherwise they’re in trouble.
For some reason I took a photo of Comanche’s stark and lifeless downtown before heading north on SR 16, all the while pondering what I had seen. I forgot all about this photo until I was downloading the rest of them for this blog entry. De Leon was the first time I said to myself, hey, I wonder how bad off this town is? (BTW I took no notes and can’t remember so there’s no judgement here) and took a little spin around town that has become my new small town calling card (see my “Big Cities and Small Towns” blog entry below).
I will say this – the further north I went the better things got and by the time I crossed I-10 it was much better. Yes I mean you, Breckenridge and Mineral Wells (there’s an actual mineral spring with a big health spa there but I didn’t go).
According to the information from the TX SOR office, my Houston clock had stopped at three days (including partials) and my Stephens County clock now started. However, when I woke up the next morning from my restful night’s sleep I was starting (partial) Day 5 since entering the state, and the question still arises whether you or I should believe anything two random people at the Texas state SOR office told me. Do you or I really want to be the first registrant to test these statements and risk getting a much different interpretation from the next Stephens County sheriff’s deputy that pulls you over for having a blown taillight?
My answer to that question is
definitely not. That’s why, after having
lunch with my son I wandered northwest toward Wichita Falls before leaving
Texas that day. They say there’s an
actual falls there but I didn’t see it – the observation point was flooded due
to heavy rains! Then I headed northeast
on SR 79, jumping from the frying pan of Texas into the fire of Oklahoma before
the afternoon was over.
An Eclipse Epic Fail: April 2024
One thing I and my old friend agreed upon was that we should go together to see the solar eclipse in April 2024. I let my old friend take charge of finding a hotel room for the night before and the viewing site itself – which turned out to be Uvalde, TX.
On this trip I flew from Orlando to Houston, and while in Texas my friend did all the driving (see comments about his driving above). NO, I was not required to give my sheriff’s department in Florida any flight info at all. That only applies to international travel. Also NO, I was not required to give them any information about my friend’s name or his car. It’s out of state so it’s none of their business.
However, YES I had to register my friend’s Texas address as a “temporary address” and destination. Some registrants I speak to are concerned about the consequences of registering this information. In the case of Florida’s registry, his address temporarily appeared on the FL SOR public website on my day of arrival, and then magically disappeared when I left. The good news is my old friend didn’t freak out about that.
The bad news was that on eclipse day it was cloudy and threatening rain all over Texas! Where we were in downtown Uvalde the sun peaked out momentarily just about 30 seconds before totality. It was impressive but not total, and then it was gone and a few seconds later it got dark but we couldn’t see anything. Uggh!
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