Does Texas Think You’re A Gang Member? Now You Can Find Out.

The premise of life is to live it the right way. I'm not talking about with loads of money in a big house with a couple of fancy, expensive cars...although that's definitely the way to be living.

I'm talking about by doing the right things, staying out of trouble with the law. Some people can go their entire lives without any kind of negative interaction with law enforcement, while there are some who seemingly live for it.

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Sometimes, you are unfortunately guilty by association. What do I mean by that? Say you've got a lot of tattoos, or you hang out with some people who have a bit of a checkered past. Texas law enforcement will keep an eye on some of those people and if they see you with them, you could be entered into a database unknown to you.

Maybe you attended a biker funeral and there was a strong police presence at it. If police are attending it heavily, there's a good chance that someone in the crew, or maybe even the deceased, have a bad past with police, and they're keeping tabs on everyone they are affiliated with.

Wouldn't it be nice if you became a person of interest in any way with police? Well, there is, and you can check it because it's public record. It's called the Texas Gang Intelligence Index, and all you have to do is enter some information to see if you're in it.

According to the Texas Council of Clubs and Indpendents website, all you have to do is click on this to get started.

Once you're there, these are the steps you take according to TXCOCI.

Now you should be on a very simple page that says, “Public Information Request” and has a drop-down box in which you scroll all the way to the bottom and choose “Other.”

This will bring up a page in which you will enter your name and other contact information, as well as a description of the requested information. In the box about the requested information, type the following: “This request is to determine whether I am listed on the TX Gang or Criminal Intelligence database. If I am listed in the database, I would like to know which agency submitted my name to the database and when they submitted it.”

After you submit this, someone from DPS will contact you and ask a few questions to confirm your identity. This is because the information cannot be released to anyone but you.

Seems pretty easy right? I don't anticipate my name popping up in this database, but hey, you never know. Sometimes people have a past, or even present, that you aren't aware of.