AKRON, Ohio (AP) — A program that helps people with
outstanding warrants get their troubles behind them attracted hundreds
of people, including one woman with a dozen open traffic cases.
More
than 1,500 people came forward over four days this past week in Akron
at the fifth Fugitive Safe Surrender program held in Ohio since 2011.
Robert
Davis, the coordinator of the program from the Ohio Attorney General’s
Office, said the program was really designed for the safety of law
enforcement officers and allow people to take care of the issues without
being brought into custody.
"It could be the wrong day for
officers to make that traffic stop," he said. "The stop could happen
when someone’s mom is sick, the day someone has to get to a child or a
job and they don’t want to go to jail that day. Then it’s an issue of
pursuit and resisting arrest. It’s not a forgiveness program, but it’s a
start. It’s the first step toward a second chance."
The program
doesn’t allow people with warrants to forego their obligations but
instead helps them deal with whatever they’re facing.
"You can’t get a job if you have a warrant, you can’t get an apartment, you can’t live above the
radar," he said.
Participants
were directed to either representatives of municipal court, common
pleas court, child support, bureau of motor vehicles, domestic relations
or adult probation. Judges along with prosecutors and defense lawyers
then worked to resolve the cases.
The Akron Beacon Journal
(http://bit.ly/1sMixkd) reported that most of the offenders seeking help
were there for traffic-related cases and license suspensions. Others
owed child support or were there for probation violations.
Overall, 1,548 people cleared a total of 3,669 warrants.
Most
of those who came forward were released on the same day after their
cases were heard and processed, the attorney general’s office said.
"We
have seen 80 percent of the cases have to do with suspended licenses
and the rest are nonviolent felonies, mostly child support cases and
some probation violations," said Joe Kodish, head of the public
defender’s program. "We meet with the prosecutor and try to come to some
agreement with the judge. The process takes a few hours, but ordinarily
could take days."
Eugene Marsh said he had a warrant after failing to appear in court for driving on a suspended license.

"My
license has been suspended since 1992 because I was behind on my child
support payments," he said. "The police arrested me on my birthday. I
was supposed to start a new job the very next day. I spent four days in
jail — when I got out, the job was gone."
He turned himself in on Friday because he said he was tired of looking over his shoulder.
"I
had to work to pay child support and I needed to drive to get to the
job, but I decided I had to do the right thing and to stop blaming
everybody else. I’m responsible."
Dan Flannery, a professor at
Case Western Reserve, who gathers statistics for the safe surrender
program, said they have been held in more than 40 cities nationwide.
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Information from: Akron Beacon Journal, http://www.ohio.com
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