Methodology

The Count

"Booked today" counts bookings dated today in the log we have. "Officers charged this year" counts reviewed news items tagged as an officer, deputy, jailer, trooper or constable being charged, arrested or indicted, plus cases added by hand. "Flock cameras located" counts reader sightings we verified. "Records requests overdue" counts requests past the 10-business-day deadline with no complete response.

Bookings

Rows come from booking reports obtained from the sheriff's records office and any report we import. Each row is kept permanently. A person is matched across bookings only on exact name plus age; we never merge on name alone. Hold flags (parole, probation, ICE, failure to register, missed court) are keyword matches on the charge text. Records marked cleared, dismissed, expunged or sealed are removed from the public site and from search.

Judge Watch and the Fathers Tally

Each case is entered from the final order. Only rulings made over a parent's objection are scored; agreed orders both parents signed are logged separately and never counted against the judge. Every father and every mother is counted, wins included. Benchmarks compare the same measures across the county's family courts. No child is named or described. Allegations in filings are not treated as facts. The judge is asked for comment before each update; the answer or the silence is posted. The publisher discloses any personal stake in a case before the court.

Court tracker

Each court's outcomes are compared only against all county courts combined. Plea, dismissal and trial rates are shares of disposed cases logged; median days run from filing to disposition. A court with few cases logged is labeled by its count, and no conclusion is drawn from a handful of cases. Outcomes come from public dockets, court watching and appellate opinions; the district clerk's online search does not allow automated collection, so cases are entered by hand or imported from records provided to us.

Roads

Fatal crashes come from NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System for Montgomery County (state 48, county 339). A crash counts as drunk-driver-involved when FARS records at least one drinking driver. Road names are as FARS records them.

Salaries

State pay is from the Texas Tribune's download of state payroll. County and city pay comes from records requests and is shown as the agency provided it, by name, title and annual rate; overtime where provided.

Flock Watch

Camera locations are reader sightings, listed automatically once a second report names the same spot, listed by road and cross street. Money figures come from contracts, invoices, budgets and grant records, each linked. Sharing lists come from the agencies' own network settings obtained by request.

Daily Arrests and Crashes

One page per day, built from every arrest or crash an agency or newsroom reports in Montgomery County, dated by when the source published it and linked to it. The county jail's own booking list is not public online (the roster needs a login and a bot check), so these pages carry what is reported, not every booking.

Most Wanted, Lost & Found, Alerts, Next Door

Most Wanted shows Multi-County Crime Stoppers' weekly Featured Felons list and every wanted notice in the news. Lost & Found shows missing-person notices and the newest animals on the county animal shelter's public listing. Alerts shows National Weather Service alerts for the county and local election news. Next Door covers Walker, San Jacinto, Grimes, Liberty and Harris counties on its own page and never counts toward Montgomery County numbers.

News feed

Headlines come from agency newsrooms and news-search feeds, tagged by keyword. We link to the source and publish the bare facts in two or three lines. Items from an agency's own newsroom post automatically. Items found through news search and tagged officer-charged, child exploitation, shooting, death in custody or line-of-duty death get one look from a person before publishing.