SYRACUSE -- A local initiative to relieve thousands of backlogged arrest warrants was deemed successful, even though only a small fraction of the outstanding warrants were processed.
“Operation Safe Surrender” has been labeled a ‘success’ by Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler. At a news conference Monday morning at the Syracuse Public Safety Building Fowler, accompanied by law enforcement and community leaders from across Onondaga County, outlined the effectiveness of the program in which people with active warrants against them were encouraged to turn themselves in this past Friday and Saturday.
Syracuse Police say there were a total of 305 arrests. 135 people surrendered on Friday, and another 170 surrendered on Saturday. 440 warrants were processed, for a total of 438 criminal charges. Of the 305 arrests, only four individuals actually went to jail.
Fowler says warrant squads will now seek out the remaining 6,000 or so active warrants, and he said “To those who did not turn themselves in, don’t get comfortable, because we’re coming.”
“Operation Safe Surrender” was designed to give people with a warrant against them an opportunity to voluntarily turn themselves in, get a break on bail, and perhaps avoid jail. For the past month local law enforcement, religious and community leaders had been publicizing the event with ads, posters and fliers.
The Syracuse Police Department’s website hosts a database of the remaining active warrants in Onondaga County. Click here for a link to that database.
