MetropolitanBaton Rouge currently has more than 50,000 people with unresolved warrants andOperation Safe Streets has been implemented to take care of them or haveoffenders suffer the consequences.
“Baton RougeCity Court is infused with bench warrants. There are thousands and thousandsthat are not cleared,” said Sgt. Mike Watson, the public information officerwho heads the warrant program.
Benchwarrants are on file in the Baton Rouge City Court for mainly misdemeanorcharges. These warrants include those for traffic, criminal, domestic violenceand driving while intoxicated citations.
Baton Rouge hasrecently added a Web site that informs the public of outstanding warrants inBaton Rouge. It can be found at www.brgov.com/dept/citycourt/warrants.
Watson saidthat outstanding warrants have become an ongoing problem in Baton Rouge, butrectifying these problems sooner rather than later is the key.
“It canaffect you a couple of years down the line if you don’t clear it up,” he said.
People withoutstanding warrants can be arrested, lose driving privileges, receiveadditional fines or have their wages garnished.
“It is goodthat you can check and make sure that you don’t have any warrants, because thatis the responsible thing to do. A lot of people have warrants and don’t knowthat they have them,” said Spencer Burns, a junior from Prairieville majoringin criminal justice.
Warrants canbe cleared up in the Baton Rouge City Constable’s Warrant Division at 233 St.Louis St. in Room 145. The office is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m.to 4:30 p.m.
OperationSafe Streets is enlisting the help of the city as a whole in this effort.
“We aretrying to get businesses and apartments to get on board with the warrantchecking policy,” Watson said. “We will start advertising in the newspaper, onbillboards and radio talk shows. It’s growing every day because a lot of localbusinesses and people want to get on board.”
