Privacy in Texas for first responders

What state law protects, what still leaks, and what we sweep beyond it.

Address Confidentiality Program

Texas maintains a state-level program that lets eligible officers, judges, and other protected workers use a substitute address for public records.

Apply or learn more →

Public-records carve-outs

Gov. Code §552.117 — home address, home phone, emergency contact, and family info of peace officers, firefighters, EMS, security officers, and prosecutors are confidential under the Public Information Act on written election.
Gov. Code §552.1175 — extends the §552.117 protections to a broader list (current and honorably retired peace officers, jailers, TDCJ employees, federal investigators, FPS officers, OAG law enforcement staff, juvenile probation/detention officers, federal and state judges, Texas Civil Commitment Office staff, US armed forces members, CPS caseworkers, elected officials, firefighters/volunteer firefighters, EMS, CBP officers, university healthcare staff at corrections facilities, DFPS attorneys, university system chancellors and presidents, public defender employees, county/district clerks, court administration staff, and State Commission on Judicial Conduct staff).
Gov. Code §552.130 / Transportation Code Ch. 730 — DMV record confidentiality.
Tax Code §25.025 — Tax appraisal districts must redact your home address from publicly available property tax records on written request; the 2024 amendments expanded the covered-persons list. Active, honorably retired, and spouses qualify; for federal/state judges, the Office of Court Administration notifies the appraisal district.
Election Code §13.004 / §15.0215 — voter registration records are restricted from public disclosure for peace officers, judges, and family members on application.
Penal Code §42.074 — criminal anti-doxxing statute; posting a residence address or phone with intent to cause harm is a Class B misdemeanor, Class A if bodily injury results.

Applicable laws

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 certain other 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.

What still leaks

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

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.
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.
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.

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 with your county appraisal district to redact your home address from property tax records. This is the one that 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. Officers are not categorically eligible.

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.

Run a free scan. No signup.