THOUSANDS OF WARRANTS BACKLOGGED

Some Surrender on Own

More than 40 Sheriff's deputies say the number continues to grow because
the department charged with serving them doesn't have enough deputies or
enough money to clear the hundreds of arrest warrants issued every week.
Deputies in the Oklahoma County Fugitive Squad said they have to choose
carefully which warrants they serve.

Sgt. Frank Bone, Deputy Larry Grant, Deputy Beverly Matthews and Deputy Jim
Lilly cruise the streets of Oklahoma County every day, looking for
fugitives wanted on charges such as embezzlement, assault and battery, and
murder.

"We try to concentrate on any of them that involve violence," Lilly said.
"The next thing is the drugs. A large portion of the warrants that include
violence are a result of somebody trying to feed a drug habit or dealing
drugs."

Still, the backlog grows.

"There's no way to stay ahead of it," Lilly said. "Certainly, if we had
unlimited manpower, we could do it. But with the limited number that we
have it's insurmountable to begin with, and we also have other
investigations that we get involved in."

Any number of things pull the deputies off warrant duty. When they go to a
house to serve a warrant, they may find a meth lab or a child being neglected.

"We end up having to follow up on those investigations, so we might be tied
up for two days after that finishing up the investigation that we initiated
by knocking on the door," Lilly said.

These cases also require the deputies to make court appearances.

The sheriff's department also conducts warrant sweeps to clear hundreds of
warrants in one night. The sweeps require about a month of preparation but
are well worth the hours, Lilly said.

"People who think that they may possibly have a warrant see that on
television and they think, 'I don't want to be on television going to
jail,' " Lilly said. "I don't know how much our surrenders increase after a
warrant sweep, but it is dramatic. It's not just the 200 people we arrest
that night. We'll end up with an additional 2,000 people that took care of
what they needed to take care of so that they don't get picked up."

Deputies are working with the state Health Department to clear the warrants
of the dead. Deputies said they sometimes discover after hours of
investigation that the person they are searching for has been dead for some
time.

Even with those efforts, tens of thousands of unserved warrants remain.
It's a common problem in counties with high populations. Charlotte, N.C.,
similar in size to Oklahoma City, has 36,000 unserved warrants. Baton
Rouge, La., has 56,000 unserved warrants.

Many counties have dramatically cut their backlogs by buying new computer
systems and hiring additional staff. Oklahoma County had 60,000 unserved
warrants until Sheriff John Whetsel put them all on a computer and
eliminated warrants on those already in custody.

The only thing that is going to have a real effect on Oklahoma County's
remaining unserved warrants is hiring more deputies and buying new computer
systems that will help officers locate people more effectively, said Capt.
Kelly Marshall, commander of the judicial services division and the
fugitive squad.

Such relief could be on the way. Proponents of a sales tax to help fund the
Oklahoma County Sheriff's Department and the jail delivered a petition
Sept. 9 with more than 36,000 signatures. Once those signatures are
certified, county commissioners will schedule the issue for a special
election within 60 days.

"I feel like as small as our division is, we use our manpower wisely,"
Marshall said. "I hate that it may come down to this, but we need more
deputies. We've trimmed all that we can."