A new strategy of publicly releasing the names of people wanted for failing to appear for Luzerne County Court hearings is paying off, according to county District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis and Sheriff Brian Szumski.
“I think it’s been a success getting the community involved. That was our goal,” Salavantis said Wednesday.
While the county was not yet able to quantify the response, Szumski said some people named in the first batch of 200 outstanding warrants publicly released earlier this month have come forward to provide information on their whereabouts and make arrangements to address their cases.
A few on the list were reported as deceased, he said. The office has requested death certificates that will be presented to a county judge so the warrants can be canceled, or “lifted” in court terminology, he said.
Others contacted the sheriff’s anonymous tip line at 1-888-796-5519 to report suspected locations of those named or verify that they no longer live at the last known addresses, Szumski said.
“The approach is working. It’s another means for us to get information out to people,” Szumski said.
Szumski and Salavantis resorted to a public list because the county has around 2,000 outstanding warrants, one of the highest numbers in the state, they said. The accumulation of outstanding warrants was approximately 1,148 in 2007.
The lists they are releasing primarily stem from older warrants issued as far back as a decade. Some of the underlying offenses were later resolved, but the defendants never filed a motion asking a judge to lift all outstanding warrants when their cases were adjudicated, Szumski has said.
The first wave of names ended in letters A through D.
Salavantis said people have been asking for the next list, and her target is to release new ones monthly.
All names can’t be released simultaneously because the county offices and police don’t have the resources to track down and resolve a flood of responses in addition to handling the 150 to 300 new warrants that arrive each month, Salavantis and Szumski said.
Salavantis said each new list also must be reviewed before release to verify warrants are still outstanding.
A standing public list of all people who are wanted is not feasible because warrants are regularly lifted and added, the officials said.
“We have discussed it, but the problem is we have no way to keep it up to date as changes take effect, and it changes by the second,” Szumski said.
Salavantis has warned the appearance of a name on the list should not be equated with wrongdoing because some may have no idea they have outstanding warrants. All outstanding warrants remain in a national database, which means those named may be detained and lodged in prison pending a hearing if they are picked up for a traffic ticket, she has said.
