GILROY
– Think there might be an arrest warrant in your name?
The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department is hosting a special
open house on April 17 and 18 in San Martin to make turning
yourself in as painless as possible.
GILROY – Think there might be an arrest warrant in your name?
The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department is hosting a special open house on April 17 and 18 in San Martin to make turning yourself in as painless as possible.
If you don’t, that warrant will hang over your head until the next time you encounter a police officer. Then you’ll be arrested, and the judge might not be so sympathetic as if you had surrendered yourself voluntarily.
“What we’re trying to do is help the people of South County take care of some warrants, help them get some court dates,” Deputy Gerhard Wallace of the sheriff’s warrants division said Wednesday.
Another aim of the sweep, is to raise money for the Sheriff’s Department, which faces more than $3 million in cuts for the fiscal year that begins July 1 – about 3.4 percent of its current $87 million budget, Wallace said. The more revenue the department can generate through processing fees, the fewer patrol officers it will need to lay off.
In the 2002-03 fiscal year, the department generated about $38 million in revenue.
People can deal with their warrants any time at the sheriff’s substation on Monterey Road in San Martin, but on April 17 and 18, deputies and the court will make a special effort to accommodate them.
“I’ve already talked to some of the judges; they’ve got some time set aside for this,” Wallace said.
For misdemeanor warrants, deputies plan to release the accused parties with promises to appear in court later.
With more serious charges, deputies may take the defendants into custody.
At the open house, people will be able to deal with warrants from any jurisdiction in the U.S., according to Deputy Terrance Helm, the sheriff’s spokesman.
Wallace said that from his experience, many people with warrants do want to get them over with, but they often give the excuse that it is hard to find a convenient time.
He thinks this voluntary “warrant sweep” will make it more convenient, he said.
New warrants are being issued faster than they are being dealt with, Helm said.
“There’s thousands of people who come into court every day and hundreds who don’t show up,” Helm said. “If you don’t show up for court, a warrant is issued for your arrest.”
The Sheriff’s Department now has a pool of about 1,000 active warrants, Wallace said.
If you don’t know whether you have a warrant, contact the Sheriff’s Department in San Martin at 686-3650 during business hours, or 808-4700 after hours.
