What Happens to Texas DWI Charges

What it shows

Shows what became of the DWI charges that Texas law enforcement agencies reported to the Department of Public Safety, for each arrest year, as courts have reported it to the Department. Each year’s charges are split into four parts: convicted of the original charge, convicted of another offense, dismissed, and no final outcome on file. The last is not an outcome: it is unknown, not acquitted, because courts report late and some cases are still open. Under each year is how old the numbers were when they were read, because only years of the same age compare. The county view lists every county for an arrest year with its charges and the share that has a final outcome on file. A charge is not a person, and the outcome counted can be for a different offense than the one charged.

How to read it

• Each bar is one arrest year’s charges, split into four parts that add up to all of them. The hatched part has no final outcome on file: it is unknown, not acquitted.
• Under each year is how many years after the arrests the numbers were read. Courts report late, so a younger year has fewer outcomes on file. Compare only bars with the same age; the lighter bar is the preliminary year, which is younger than the rest.
• Click a year to read its numbers in the tiles above the bars. Hover or focus a bar for the counts behind each part.
• In the county view, each bar is a county’s charges and the solid part is the share with a final outcome on file. There is no county conviction rate: the share with an outcome on file differs widely between counties, so a county’s conviction share would show how completely its courts report as much as how its cases end.
• A count of 1 to 4 in a county is withheld, and where either the convicted or the dismissed count is withheld, both are, so none can be worked out by subtraction. Outcomes are never shown by agency.
• Counties leave out the state and federal agencies, mostly the Department itself, which the source lists outside any county.

Useful on: Texas DWI law and penalty pages · Court and prosecution explainers · Local news on how cases end.