A Legislative Information Review of the Texas Department of Public Safety Page: 28 of 73
This report is part of the collection entitled: Texas State Auditor's Office: Reports and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Management's Response:
In July 1997, DPS sent 2,000 surveys to individuals identified as being mailed
concealed handgun license applications in January or February 1997. The survey
population had not to date returned the applications. Of the 305 survey respondents,
88.5% indicated they planned to complete their application and return it to the
Department at a later date. An additional 6.6% of the respondents indicated they
would not be returning their applications and 4.9% were undecided. These results
suggest a significant number ofpending applications will be returned after a time
frame greater than six months.
This is consistent with other findings by the Department that a number of applications
are returned more than one year after they have been sent to applicants. For example,
in July 1997, the Department received and entered 316 applications for prorated
licenses even though prorated applications had not been mailed out since July 1996.
These prorated license applications, all one year old or older, accounted for 9.9% of
the applications entered in July 1997. These results suggest that the postage expended
to mail applications to individuals sending application request cards is a cost effective
strategy.
The respondents (6.6%) indicating they will not be returning their application stated
a number of reasons such as disqualifiers, complexity of the process, license fees and
associated costs. Many of these factors are outside the control of the Department or
are impossible to concisely and clearly state on a postcard size request card.
Redundant data entry, with regard to concealed handgun license applications, occurs
in order to reduce manual processing of application request cards and reduce errors
caused by applicants exchanging application packets. This process will continue to be
evaluated for efficiency.
The Concealed Handgun License Section uses a vendors zip code CD ROM to verify
questionable zip codes which occur infrequently. The information on the CD ROM,
however, is stored in a proprietary format and is therefore unavailable for a data
entry zip code process.
The US. Postal Service has advised that zip codes could not be used to definitively fill
in city or county data fields. While each city or town has its own distinct zip code,
rural areas and small towns will have the zip code of the nearest post office, which
may be in a different town. County is unrelated to zip code and one zip code may span
multiple counties. The suggestion of using a zip code program to automatically
populate data entry fields is only feasible for the state field since neither city nor
county information can be definitively obtained from the zip code.
A LEGISLATIVE INFORMATION REVIEW OF
THE TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY PAGE 25AUGUST 1997
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This report can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Report.
Texas. Office of the State Auditor. A Legislative Information Review of the Texas Department of Public Safety, report, August 1997; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth517746/m1/28/?rotate=90: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.