Privacy in Texas for first responders

What protects you in Texas

Texas has one of the stronger state-level shields for first responders. Government Code §552.117 lets peace officers, firefighters, EMS, security officers, and prosecutors elect, in writing, to keep their home address, home phone, emergency contact, and family information out of any record an agency would release under the Public Information Act. §552.1175 extends the same protection to judges, parole officers, jailers, and a broader list of public servants.

The election is per-agency. File with each one that holds your records, your department, the county clerk, the appraisal district, the elections office. Once on file, those fields are confidential.

The Tax Code §25.025 protection is the one most officers miss. Property tax records are public by default in Texas, and the appraisal districts publish them online. File a §25.025 request and your home address is redacted from the appraisal roll, the tax record, and the online property search. Active, honorably retired, and spouses qualify. The 2024 amendments expanded the covered-persons list and codified the comptroller-prescribed form. For federal and state judges, the Office of Court Administration notifies the appraisal district directly.

For everything that lands on a broker site after a credible threat, Penal Code §42.074 makes it a Class B misdemeanor, Class A with bodily injury, to post your residence address or phone with intent to cause harm. It's a criminal track, not a takedown order, but it's a real lever to put in front of police and prosecutors when a doxer crosses the line.

Form 50-284, the §25.025 filing path

The Tax Code §25.025 protection runs through Form 50-284, prescribed by the Texas Comptroller. The form covers all the categories in §25.025 and is filed with the county appraisal district that holds your records, not the comptroller. One form per district. If you own property in two counties, you file two forms.

What goes on the form:

• Your full legal name and the property address you want redacted
• The category you qualify under (peace officer, firefighter, judge, etc.)
• Verifying agency contact and your status (active, retired, spouse, surviving spouse)
• Signature under penalty of perjury

Supporting documentation depends on the category. For peace officers, a copy of your TCOLE certification or department ID. For retirees, a separation letter or pension verification. For spouses, the officer's documentation plus your marriage license. The appraisal district has 30 days to act. Once redacted, the home address is removed from the public appraisal roll, the online property search, and printed reports.

Federal and state judges don't file Form 50-284 themselves. The Office of Court Administration notifies the appraisal district under the 2024 amendments, the redaction is automatic on appointment.

Who's covered under §25.025

The 2024 expansion added several categories. The current covered list under Tax Code §25.025 includes:

• Current and former peace officers and their spouses, surviving spouses, and adult children of current peace officers
• County jailers
• Texas Department of Criminal Justice employees
• Commissioned security officers
• District attorneys, criminal district attorneys, county and municipal attorneys, and their spouses
• Community supervision and corrections department officers
• Federal criminal investigators
• US Federal Protective Service police and inspectors
• Office of the Attorney General employees involved in law enforcement
• Juvenile probation and detention officers and their spouses
• Federal and state judges, justices, and their spouses
• Texas Civil Commitment Office staff
• Members of the US armed forces who were killed or 100% disabled in the line of duty
• Child protective services caseworkers and their spouses
• Elected public officers
• Firefighters and volunteer firefighters
• EMS personnel and their spouses
• Customs and Border Protection officers
• University healthcare provider employees at corrections facilities
• DFPS attorneys
• Higher education governing board members and chancellors

If you're in any of those categories and own property in Texas, file Form 50-284. It's the single most useful filing in Texas. Property records are the fastest broker re-listing channel after a transaction.

§552.117, the personnel-records election mechanics

§552.117 is the front-end shield. It applies to current and former public employees, with named categories for peace officers, firefighters, EMS, security officers, and prosecutors. The election is automatic for some categories on hire, but you should file in writing to make the record clean.

The §552.117 election covers home address, home phone, emergency contact information, family member info, and SSN held by the employing agency. Once filed, those fields are confidential under PIA and the agency can't release them in response to a public-records request.

§552.1175 extends the same protection to a broader list, the carve-out built specifically for retirees and for non-employees with public-safety functions. Honorably retired peace officers, jailers, judges, parole officers, and the rest get §552.1175 coverage on a separately filed election.

Both elections are per-agency. File with every entity that holds your records: department, county clerk, appraisal district, elections office, pension fund. The Texas Attorney General's office publishes guidance on the §552.1175 election including the standard election form. Most departments have an internal HR form that covers the §552.117 election on hire.

How the three statutes layer

§552.117 / §552.1175 cover personnel records and agency-held data. §25.025 covers the appraisal district. §552.130 plus Transportation Code Ch. 730 cover the DMV. They don't overlap, they layer. A complete Texas filing for a working officer looks like:

1. §552.117 election with the employing department on hire (often automatic).
2. §552.1175 election with every other agency that holds your data, county clerk, court administration, pension fund.
3. Form 50-284 with the appraisal district in every county where you own property.
4. DMV confidentiality under §552.130 / Transportation Code 730 with TxDPS.
5. Election Code §15.0215 confidential voter registration with the county elections office.

If you skip one, the data leaks through that channel. Brokers re-list officers after property transactions, voter-roll updates, or DMV record changes, those are the three paths that the layering closes off. The Anchorage PD 2021 traffic-reports exposure shows the cost of leaving one channel open, the data flowed through the unprotected path and bypassed the rest.

ACP through the OAG, who's eligible

The Texas Address Confidentiality Program runs through the Attorney General's office at texasattorneygeneral.gov/crime-victims. Authority is Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 58.052.

Eligibility is limited to victims of family violence, sexual assault, stalking, or human trafficking. Officers are not categorically eligible. An officer who has been doxed and is being stalked may qualify under the stalking category. The application requires verification through a designated victim-advocacy organization, the standard path is through a local family-violence or sexual-assault program.

ACP provides a substitute mailing address that all state and local agencies must use in place of your real one. Mail forwards to your real address through the OAG. ACP enrollment doesn't replace §552.117 or §25.025, it adds a fifth layer for officers with a documented threat.

The §42.074 anti-doxxing statute

Penal Code §42.074 was enacted in 2023. It criminalizes posting a residence address or telephone number with intent to cause harm. Class B misdemeanor on the baseline, Class A if bodily injury results from the disclosure.

What it requires: the disclosure has to be of residence address or telephone, the post has to be public, and the intent has to be to cause harm. "Cause harm" includes harassment, stalking, or threatening conduct, the intent element is what most defendants challenge.

What it doesn't do: it doesn't compel takedown. It's a criminal track, prosecutor-driven, with the same evidentiary bar as any other criminal case. For most officers, §42.074 is the lever to put in front of the DA after a credible threat is documented, not the takedown mechanism. The civil takedown channel for Texas officers runs through §552.117 elections plus broker scrubbing, §42.074 sits behind that as the deterrent.

The Denver police commander doxxing case is the closest analog, Colorado's anti-doxxing statute carries similar elements and resulted in a 2026 conviction. Texas hasn't yet had the headline §42.074 prosecution, but the statute is on the books and live.

What still leaks

Three sources stay open even with §552.117, §25.025, and DMV protections filed:

1. Civil court filings. Divorce decrees, tax suits, and small-claims filings often include your home address in the body of the document. The county clerk publishes the docket and many counties publish full filings. The §552.117 election doesn't apply to court filings, that's a separate process through the court.
2. Voter rolls before §15.0215 election. Standard Texas voter rolls are public, and commercial brokers buy them. Election Code §15.0215 lets you opt to confidentiality, but it's not the default, file separately with your county elections office.
3. Out-of-state and commercial brokers. Spokeo, Whitepages, BeenVerified, and the rest don't honor Texas law. They source from public-record aggregators that scraped your data before the election was filed and from commercial feeds that don't care about state-level confidentiality. The state shield doesn't reach them.

What about retirees, families, federal officers

Honorably retired peace officers. §552.1175 covers retired LE explicitly. §25.025 covers retired and spouses of retired. The post-retirement window is the time to layer the elections, agency-side filings often lapse if not separately renewed.

Spouses and adult children. §25.025 covers spouses, surviving spouses of peace officers killed on the job, and adult children of current peace officers. §552.117 family info is protected on the officer's election. Adult children of retirees are not covered, the statute draws that line.

Federal officers. Federal criminal investigators, US Federal Protective Service, and CBP officers are explicitly covered under §25.025 and §552.1175. Federal judges run through the Office of Court Administration on appointment plus the federal Lieu Act for broker removal.

Laws that work for you here

• Gov. Code §552.117 — the core protection. File the written election with each agency holding your records. Free, fast, no court order needed.
• Gov. Code §552.1175 — extension covering judges, parole officers, jailers, and additional categories. Same election process.
• Tax Code §25.025 — file Form 50-284 with your county appraisal district to redact your home address from property tax records. Closes the appraisal-district publishing channel that drives a lot of broker re-listings.
• Election Code §13.004 / §15.0215 — file with your county elections office to keep your voter registration confidential.
• Gov. Code §552.130 / Transportation Code Ch. 730 — DMV record confidentiality on application.
• Penal Code §42.074 — criminal anti-doxxing track. Class B misdemeanor for posting an address with intent to harm, Class A if injury results.
• Address Confidentiality Program — substitute-address program for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and human trafficking. Run by the Attorney General's office.

What we sweep that the state doesn't

The Texas elections shut down the agency disclosure paths. We handle the brokers. We file standard opt-outs across 200+ people-search sites and re-check every two weeks. We also re-check after any property transaction or court filing, those are the events that re-list you fastest after a Texas appraisal-district redaction is in place.

The 2025 Houston firefighter data breach exposed 7,500 SSNs, the breach data flowed into the broker pipeline within weeks. State elections don't help once a breach is in the wild. Broker scrubbing is the recovery path.