Kerr County DWI Guide

Kerr County stopped taking cash or money orders across the jail counter. Depositing funds into an inmate's commissary or trust account now runs through a lobby ATM instead, and the fees are steep: a flat $3.25 for a cash deposit, or a full 10% of the transaction for a card. Mailing a money order avoids those fees but adds its own trap — commissary runs on a Tuesday cycle, and anything not physically received by noon Monday misses that week's order entirely.

Jail and Bond

Everyone books into the Kerr County Jail, expanded in 2016 to 328 beds and watched by 240 cameras. Magistration now runs through the state's Public Safety Report System rather than a flat bail schedule, so bond amounts vary by individualized risk assessment — a first-offense DWI still typically lands around $2,819, a second closer to $5,139. Release, once bond posts, is legally allowed around the clock, but shift changes near 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. freeze all processing for headcounts; getting paperwork filed in the midday window between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. avoids the worst delay. If a second offense or a BAC over 0.15 triggers a mandatory interlock as a bond condition, there's a strict seven-day window from release to get it installed, calibrated, and reported to community supervision — miss it and a bench warrant follows immediately.

Watch for a pending change to Texas bail law: a constitutional amendment (SJR 5) went before voters in November 2025 that, if enacted, would let magistrates deny bail entirely for defendants facing upgraded violent-felony charges like Intoxication Assault or Intoxication Manslaughter, provided the state shows by clear and convincing evidence the person poses an ongoing threat. That would be a real departure from the long-standing presumption that pretrial release is close to an absolute right.

Getting the Car Back

Non-consent tows run through a rotation among local companies including JDS Wrecker Service, Integrity Towing, Jimmy's Towing Service, and Fat Boy Towing — calling the arresting agency's dispatch with the plate or VIN identifies which one has the car. Integrity specifically requires a full hour's advance notice before any release, so calling ahead rather than just showing up matters. Fees run the standard state schedule: $272 for the tow, $22.85 a day storage, $50 for a notification letter. The 12-hour exception applies here too — a car towed at 11 p.m. Friday and out by 9 a.m. Saturday only owes one day despite crossing midnight — but going even 90 minutes past that window at 11:30 a.m. instead triggers the second charge.

Given how much of the county's traffic is tourists, the out-of-state notification rule matters here more than most places: if a car carries out-of-state plates, the lot has five days to request the vehicle's motor vehicle record from its home state, and if they skip that step, they're capped at charging five days of storage total regardless of how long the car actually sits. Foreign photo ID, including a Mexican passport or consular ID, is legally valid for release, and out-of-state notarizations on a power of attorney have to be honored too. A "card machine is down" excuse doesn't hold up legally either — if the lot's electronic payment system is genuinely broken, they're barred from charging storage fees past the date the owner first tried to pay.

Court

Misdemeanor DWIs go to the County Court at Law under Judge Susan F. Harris, who runs a tightly disciplined docket and has little patience for tardiness — arriving by 7:45 a.m. for an 8:30 roll call is the standing advice given how badly the single security checkpoint backs up on heavy docket mornings. Felony DWIs move to the 198th (Judge M. Patrick Maguire) or 216th (Judge Albert Pattillo) District Courts upstairs in the same building. Phones must be fully off or silenced, the dress code runs to business casual with the usual prohibited list, and a bailiff turning someone away at the door for attire counts as a failure to appear rather than a warning.

Kerr County has no dedicated adult DWI or SOBER court, unlike some nearby urban counties, so any pretrial diversion depends entirely on discretionary negotiation with the County Attorney's Office rather than a structured program. Misdemeanor DWIs are prosecuted by the County Attorney specifically, not the District Attorney's office, which only handles felonies — and Judge Harris's court runs under its own Standing Discovery Control Order dictating exactly when the state has to hand over dashcam footage, SFST scoring sheets, and toxicology reports.

The License Suspension Clock

The ALR hearing request is due within 15 calendar days of the DIC-25 notice. Blood-draw cases, common given how aggressively "No Refusal" warrants get used here, work on a delayed clock: the notice doesn't go out until the state lab reports results, which can take weeks or months, and the 15-day window only starts once that mailed notice is presumed delivered — missing mail because of a move or an outdated address means an unappealable suspension nobody saw coming. Miss the deadline outright and the suspension activates automatically on day 40. The local DPS office runs strictly by appointment; walk-ins are turned away except for a rare same-day slot claimed through the lobby kiosk, and a fully booked Kerrville office often means driving to a neighboring county instead.

Compliance and Local Resources

Smart Start operates two Kerrville locations, one co-located inside a local defense attorney's office and another sharing space with an automotive audio specialist that's specifically recommended for newer vehicles with complex wiring, and Low Cost Interlock operates out of that same second location. SCRAM monitoring, when ordered for high-risk or repeat cases, runs through regional providers coordinating directly with local probation rather than a dedicated Kerrville office.

The required 12-hour DWI education course and the 15-hour drug-offense version both run through a regional alcohol and drug abuse council based in Kerrville, currently taught live over Zoom rather than in person — anyone needing physical attendance has to travel to the agency's San Antonio location instead. Registration and payment have to be finalized by noon the Friday before a course starts to hold a seat. The same council runs a 12-week outpatient treatment track built around cognitive behavioral therapy for anyone whose clinical evaluation flags a deeper dependency issue.

Sources

• Kerr County Jail
• TDLR VSF Fees and Other Charges
• Texas DPS Administrative License Revocation Program
• Kerr County Court at Law
• 198th & 216th District Courts