A perfect reason why people should be allowed to carry concealed weapons.

> Some go uncaught for decades; outmanned police can’t keep up
>
> Tuesday, July 6, 1999
> By PAUL HAVEN
> THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
>
> When police arrested Charles Jaynes in the kidnapping
> and murder of a young boy, he was already wanted on 75
> outstanding warrants in 18 Massachusetts courts.
>
> Nobody, however, appeared to have been looking for him.
>
> Authorities say the case is far from unique. Through-
> out the country, hundreds of thousands — if not millions —
> of warrants are outstanding for people wanted on felony
> offenses. The numbers are stretching the resources of local
> police and raising fears that criminals are slipping through
> the cracks.
>
> “A lot of the state and local authorities just don’t
> have the money or the resources” to track down fugitives,
> said Arthur Roderick, chief of domestic investigations at
> the U.S. Marshals Service.
>
> The FBI’s National Crime Information Center, which
> police use for background checks on suspects, lists 516,000
> outstanding warrants, the vast majority for felonies.
> Though many cases are solved each year, the list of open
> cases has grown from 340,000 in 1990.
>
> The actual number of felony warrants is much higher.
> Many are never entered into the national system, often
> because states don’t want to spend the time and resources on
> paperwork — or pay extradition costs if a suspect is found.
>
> The low percentage of warrants shared with the NCIC
> also means that most felony arrest orders won’t show up in
> background checks used for handgun purchases.
>
> Massachusetts has 70,000 outstanding felony warrants
> but lists only 2,700 at the NCIC. Overall, the NCIC esti-
> mates it receives less than 20 percent of all outstanding
> felony warrants in the country. That would mean there are
> upward of 2.5 million felony arrest orders that have never
> been served.
>
> “This is probably the largest public safety threat we
> face in the country,” said Massachusetts state Sen. Cheryl
> Jacques, who led a review of her state’s warrant system.
>
> “There is no deterrent in the criminal justice system
> if criminals know that they can go months, years or decades
> without ever paying for their first crime and can go on and
> commit dozens more.”
>
> Jaynes, who was eventually convicted of second-degree
> murder in the killing of 10-year-old Jeffrey Curley in 1997,
> was living at home and holding down a full-time mechanic’s
> job despite scores of warrants, including an arrest order
> for skipping out on parole. An accomplice also was convict-
> ed.
>
> A Senate committee headed by Jacques found that a lack
> of coordination among the state’s computer systems meant
> thousands of wanted felons were being allowed to renew
> driver’s licenses and even collect welfare benefits without
> police being informed.
>
> “They are interacting with the government without the
> slightest hassle,” she said.
>
> Local police often conduct sweeps and use innovative
> stings to lower their warrant rolls.
>
> In Colorado, for example, police sent out letters to
> hundreds of wanted people telling them they’d won tickets to
> watch the Denver Broncos football team, said Colorado Bureau
> of Investigation Director Robert Cantwell. When they showed
> up, they were arrested.
>
> Popular television shows such as “America’s Most Want-
> ed” have also helped, but they can highlight only a tiny
> fraction of all cases, said the U.S. Marshals’ Roderick.
>
> Police generally rely on chance encounters like traffic
> stops to find fugitives because so few officers are assigned
> to pursue wanted people.
>
> “It’s quite possible for an individual . . . to live
> pretty much anonymously, and unless they do something that
> brings them to the attention of authorities, they probably
> won’t be caught,” said Jack Grant of the International
> Association of Chiefs of Police, based in Alexandria, Va.
>
> In Massachusetts, Jacques is urging more laptop comput-
> ers in patrol cars, doubling the state’s fugitive squad from
> six officers to 12 and improving coordination among state
> agencies.
>
> “We can’t have a system where the chances are basically
> like the lottery for a fugitive ever getting caught,” she
> said.
>
> In California, a San Francisco Chronicle report found
> that almost 223,000 individuals are wanted on felony war-
> rants — including 2,690 for homicide, 1,470 for sexual
> assault, and 74,000 for drug offenses.
>
> “These numbers are startling and disturbing and repre-
> sent a serious defect in the criminal justice system,”
> California Attorney General Bill Lockyer told the paper.
>
> Michigan state Sen. William Van Regenmorter said the
> state, with 24,280 outstanding felony warrants, is also
> grappling with the problem.
>
> “There are tons of warrants that are unserved, some for
> some very dangerous people,” he said. “It’s a resource
>
> issue.”
>
> In Colorado, which has 23,600 outstanding felony war-
> rants, most criminals eventually slip up with a traffic
> violation or a new crime, Cantwell said.
>
> “But the scary part to me is … they will get caught,
> but how many more crimes will they have committed?” he said.
>
> “How much damage will they do before they get caught?”
>
> Send comments to [email protected]
> C 1999 Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
> All rights reserved.
>
> http://www.seattle-pi.com/national/fuge06.shtm
>