This year’s report reflects that two of the offenders were actively being supervised on bond conditions by the pre-trial division of the Community Supervision Department in Tarrant County. In the State of Texas, every individual arrested and charged with a crime is entitled to a pre-trial bond with very limited exceptions. In recent years, due to criminal justice reforms and jail over-crowding, bonds have been significantly lower than in year’s past.

After an arrest, a suspect is brought before a magistrate or a Judge within 48 hours to hear the charges before them, designate whether they need an appointed attorney, and have a reasonable bond set. A magistrate may consider several factors in setting a bond, including the facts of the crime and the safety of the community. Besides the actual monetary amount, the magistrate may also set forth conditions of bond. Conditions can include home confinement, GPS monitoring, remote cell phone monitoring, urinalysis, surrender of firearms or weapons, and prohibitions on contact with victims or witnesses, and certain locations. It is at the magistration of an offender when he or she is often served with an Emergency Protective Order (EPO).

If an EPO is not issued, the bond conditions operate in the same manner. Meaning, the State of Texas allows an individual charged with a Family Violence case to be charged for violation of a protective order OR violation of a bond condition. The importance of that provision is that if an offender does violate the conditions with a new crime, that constitutes one of the limited scenarios where an offender can be held with no bond until the resolution of their case.

In Tarrant County, an offender who is brought in with a Family Violence charge receives an extra risk assessment that evaluates prior criminal history and a determination based upon the Danger Assessment, if it is available in the police report. The Danger Assessment is a validated tool used to measure a victim's level of danger within a relationship. They may also be evaluated using the ODARA tool by trained pre-trial officers. The ODARA is a validated tool that measures an offender's risk of recidivism, or re-offending.

The unfortunate reality, however, is that if an offender can financially make their bond, there is only so much the pre-trial division can legally do to actively supervise a person free in the community. In 2019, Tarrant County initiated the High Risk IPV bond caseload, which is designed for released offenders who are at the highest risk of re-offending. There are hundreds of individuals currently being supervised in that caseload.

Unfortunately, in the two cases reflected in our report, the new offenses were homicides. In one instance, it was the homicide of the victim being protected by the bond conditions, and in the other instance, it was the victim’s new partner (a secondary victim not included in the overall IPV homicide number of 7). This is the ultimate risk when an offender is released back into the community. Generally, there are many crimes with a low risk of recidivism, and there are even fewer categories of crime where the same victim would be victimized. Offenses that occur within the family or against an intimate partner are the obvious exception. We know that from statistics, and, our Fatality Review report each year, this is reflected anecdotally.