Warrant service 'like trying to swim uphill'
Captain Mike Walsh with the Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Office went to police briefing on Thursday to tell the story of how a reckless driving warrant turned into a multi-offender bust for counterfeit cash, drugs and firearms.
The story was interesting enough by itself: A patrol deputy knocked on a door to serve the $253 warrant Tuesday, having picked the address at random from a list of thousands. He checked the arrestee for guns, found drugs and called for a search.
So began a multi-agency bust that would draw in officers from three agencies and could lead to more charges for more people than the residents, 18-year-old Nicolas Wingler and 20-year-old Eugene Marshall Jr.
“This started out as a misdemeanor warrant and ended up with arrests for firearms, drugs and counterfeiting, which is a federal charge,” Walsh said. “When our deputies go out to serve these warrants, a lot of times they’ll find more significant crimes.”
Police: Stolen guns, fake $20s, drugs found in SF home
15,000 outstanding warrants
The back story on warrants is perhaps more interesting, though, and it starts with this number: 15,000.
That’s the number of outstanding warrants in Minnehaha County right now. It might seem like a lot, but in reality it’s less than it was seven years ago. In 2009, the figure was 17,500.
Alongside seven years of increasing crime and an ever-swelling jail population in Sioux Falls, how did sheriff’s deputies manage to pare down the number of open charges on the books?
There are at least three factors at play here, according to Sheriff Mike Milstead.
gotwarrants.org: The first is www.gotwarrants.org, launched in 2009 as a public repository of all local active warrants. The website lets anyone with an Internet connection search for warrants bearing their own name or the names of friends and neighbors.
The Sheriff’s Office gets calls with tips on a warrant-holder’s location every day, Milstead said.
Turn Yourself In: The second factor is a helping hand for those who might see their own name on the warrant list for an unpaid speeding ticket, fine or misdemeanor charge. It’s the Turn Yourself In program, which launched around the time gotwarrants.org went live.
It allows most people with warrants to show up at the Sheriff’s Office between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. for a quick booking and release. They don’t need to sit in jail for a night, make bail or come up with every dollar they owe. It only costs $25, and the warrant holder gets a court date to talk to a judge about their legal issue.
That’s proven popular, too.
“We’re running 400 people or so per month,” Milstead said.
The final success point is about combining those tips with the work of deputies, all of whom get a list of warrants in their service area every day. They’re serving warrants on that list between calls on a daily basis.
Violent felon task force: On the felony warrant side, the sheriff has a violent felon task force that works the more serious cases every day. That team is busier than ever. In 2008, the Sheriff’s Office served 850 felony warrants. In 2015, the number was 1,956.
“As a result, more of those serious offenders have been apprehended,” Milstead said.
It’s a success story in a city struggling every day to handle the spikes in crime that accompany population growth at the intersection of two interstates.
The success doesn’t amount to an end to the never-ending task of catching people who miss court or have warrants out for arrest on a new charge, of course. Walsh put it this way Thursday: “It almost feels like we’re trying to swim uphill,” he said.
John Hult is the Reader's Watchdog reporter for Argus Leader Media. Contact him with questions and concerns at 605-331-2301, 605-370-8617. You can tweet him @ArgusJHult or find him on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/ArgusReadersWatchdog
Argus 911: More crime and safety news at Argus911.com, @Argus911 and on Facebook.