For Tulsans who have warrants or citations, the city is offering a chance to clear them without the fear of being arrested.
The city’s municipal and district courts are teaming up to help residents resolve outstanding bench warrants, traffic citations and nonviolent misdemeanors during a July 31 “Clear Your Warrants” event.
“For many residents, unresolved warrants or citations create real barriers to jobs, housing, transportation and stability,” Mayor Monroe Nichols said in a late June press release announcing the event. The event, he added, “gives people a safe way to address those issues, understand their options and take the next step.”
As of early June, there were 129,579 outstanding warrants with $5.8 million owed in fines, city officials told The Eagle. The last time Tulsa hosted a “Clear Your Warrants” event in March 2024, 580 people took up the city on its offer, resulting in 1,043 warrants being eliminated.
Thousands of citations go unpaid for extended periods due to what some experts describe as a pervasive legal system that preys on people with low incomes.
Stephen Galoob, a law professor at The University of Tulsa, said the majority of warrants in almost every state are issued for failure to appear in court and failure to pay. Galoob cited an Alabama Appleseed study that found not paying off court debt was the infraction for nearly 40% of people surveyed.
“It’s great that the city is resolving these things … but the need to have something like this really highlights how much of the colonial legal system is built on extracting funds out of really poor people,” Galoob said.
How to prepare for the event
All attendees must register, either online in advance or on site.
If you’d like to know if you have any outstanding warrants or citations, you can visit the City of Tulsa’s warrant search portal. For any state cases, you can search your name on the Oklahoma State Courts Network website.
Any resident with no or expired insurance, tags or driver’s licenses violations can resolve citations at a reduced cost by bringing proof of current active compliance.
Driving under the influence and domestic-related cases are not eligible for clearance at the event. State payments will not be accepted but can be made separately through the Tulsa County Courthouse during normal business hours.
City warrants can be cleared from 8 to 11 a.m. and 1 to 3 p.m. July 31 at the Tulsa Municipal Court, at 600 Civic Center in downtown. You can do the same for state warrants down the street from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Arvest Convention Center, 100 Civic Center.
Attendees will also have access to court staff and attorneys to explore payment plans and services like financial counseling, mental health and family support, housing and employment resources and more.
Ismael Lele is a Report for America corps member and writes about business in Tulsa for The Oklahoma Eagle. Your donation to match our Report for America grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting this link.
