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Warrants still a priority for Benton cops |
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Thursday, 23 July 2009 |
Benton Police Department is continuing a concentrated drive to serve all of its current warrants, which totaled around 4,000 in March. Since that time, nearly 1,000 have been served, Lt. Kevin Russell said.
“We are continuing our efforts to serve the warrants as often as we can,” Russell said. “We are down to 3,112 now. We’ve made a dent in those numbers, but obviously still have some work to do.”
In June alone, the department issued 360 warrants and issued 99 in July for a total of 459 for the two months to date. Russell said 350 of those have already been served and 62 of those warrants are felonies. He said because of the warrants, $8,350 has been collected in warrant fees and $46,218 has been collected in court fees since June 1.
“A small percentage of the money collected returns to the city,” Russell said. “The rest is up to the courts discretion, I believe.”
Russell said he wants the public to know about the concentrated effort in order to save possible embarrassment for people who have warrants issued for their arrests. However, he said it is also important to the residents of the city to help rid the streets of criminals.
“We are encouraging people with warrants to turn themselves in,” Russell said. “It could save them embarrassment if we have to come to their home and arrest them in front of family, friends or at their place of business. People need to either come into the police department or at least call if they believe they have a warrant.”
Russell said in some cases, depending on the nature of the warrant, a person could simply be issued a new court date. However, if an officer has to serve the warrant, the person will most likely have to serve jail time, he said.
“They could also avoid additional fees such as impounding their vehicle if they are arrested on a traffic stop,” Russell noted. “A person with a warrant is listed with the Arkansas Crime Information Center, so if they are stopped in another town — for instance, Fayetteville — that police unit will call us, we’ll travel there to pick them up and we’ll bring them back here.”
In some, if not most cases, Russell said an officer will even travel out of state to bring that person back to Benton. Back in March, the department realized there was an extensive backlog of 3,043 warrants dating back to 2002, he noted. Along with law enforcement officers from Bryant, Saline County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Marshal’s Office, they conducted “Operation Spring Cleaning” for two days. By April 2, the number of warrants was reduced to 2,660. Following a Feb. 28 Courier article announcing the focus, 558 people called the department to see if they had an active warrant and 84 people turned themselves into police.
“Getting that article out was a definite help to aid our cause,” he said. “We are also looking at doing something similar to [warrants sweep] again later this year, but right now officers are still serving warrants each shift. They’ll grab warrants for their daily patrol and make an extensive effort to serve them.”
Anyone concerned about a possible warrant is encouraged to call the Benton Police Department at 776-5948 or come by the station at 114 S. East St. (lower level of Benton Municipal Complex).
If you know of someone who might have an outstanding warrant, call the Benton police tip line at 315-TIPS.
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