10,000 felony suspects on the loose in Franklin Co.

...and yet the gun ban lobby claims you are "buying into a culture of fear" if you make a responsible choice to bear arms for self-defense.

April 29, 2004
Columbus Dispatch

Deputies going after 10,000 felony suspects

Franklin County deputy sheriffs will work overtime to whittle away at a backlog of 10,000 outstanding felony warrants for crimes ranging from drug offenses to murder.

The department’s fugitive squad, which nabs an average of 1,200 suspects a year and travels across the country to retrieve those arrested elsewhere, has been unable to keep up, Chief Deputy Steve Martin said.

"You name it, we got it," Martin said of the crimes on the outstanding warrants. "A smattering," he said, are murders. Charges cover all five levels of felonies, and some are years old.

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Last October, Central Ohio Crime Stoppers published a book that listed the names, descriptions, last known addresses and other information for 900 of Franklin County’s most-wanted felons.

The attempt to enlist the public’s help came two months after a North Side Wendy’s employee was shot and killed, allegedly by a 22-year-old man who already was wanted on an outstanding felony warrant.

It was a one-time effort, though, said Columbus police detective Gerald Milner, the group’s coordinator. It was expensive and would have required constant updating, he said.

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The sheriff’s office will use $50,000 from a federal grant to pay overtime to workers addressing the backlog.

The Franklin County clerk of courts’ office was unable to determine the number of warrants issued annually, but the fugitive squad has pursued an average of 7,500 a year since 2001.

Martin said it is a time-consuming and sometimes unsuccessful pursuit.

Most suspects have left the addresses listed on warrants, he said, so detective work is required. Many flee the county or state, and the few hundred arrested elsewhere each year must be extradited to Franklin County. Airlines require that two deputies accompany criminal suspects.

Far fewer than one in four warrants worked on by the squad results in an arrest.

"These people don’t want to be found," Martin said. "These people that are out there are wanted individuals - changing their appearance, changing the names they use," he said.