DEPUTIES SET PRIORITIES FOR SERVING WARRANTS; RISK TO COMMUNITY IS BIG DETERMINING FACTOR.

Byline: Orith Goldberg Staff Writer

Priority is the name of the game when it comes to serving arrest warrants in Los Angeles County, according to law enforcement officials.

With limited staffing and hundreds of thousands of outstanding warrants throughout the county, officials must focus on serving arrest warrants to suspects posing the highest risk to the community.

``We prioritize warrants based on the level of violence (of a perpetrator) and immediate threat they are to the public,'' said Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Jim Hellmold.

As of May 31, Los Angeles County had more than 1 million outstanding bench and arrest warrants. Some of the warrants date back 30 years, officials said.

Of those warrants, about 594,000 are arrest warrants and 618,000 are bench warrants issued when a person fails to show up in court, said Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Paul Alexander, who works for the Los Angeles Countywide Warrant System.

About one-third of those outstanding warrants are out of the Sheriff's Department.

``The numbers are staggering for the whole county,'' Alexander said.

Since most of those warrants are for misdemeanor violations and there is not enough personnel to address all of the outstanding warrants, officials said prioritization is of the utmost importance.

Lt. Ron Shreves of the Lancaster sheriff's station said the station has a detective responsible for serving warrants, but not enough personnel to serve them all.

Even if there were additional personnel, the number of warrants would continue to exceed the number of personnel responsible for handling them, he said.

``In my perception, it's a black hole,'' Shreves said. ``The more cops there are, the more offenses are discovered and the more cases are processed.''

Officials said many suspects are picked up on arrest warrants when they are contacted by authorities for unrelated matters.

Most of the 2,500 deputies on patrol in Los Angeles County conduct background searches when someone is stopped or arrested by officers, officials said.

Sgt. Howard Fairchild, who is in charge of the Santa Clarita Valley sheriff's station's robbery, assault and domestic violence team, said most of his team's warrants are served, adding that those arrests are for high-priority crimes.

``If we need to get (the suspect) off the street, we get him,'' he said. ``Otherwise, it goes into the system.''

Arrest warrants can range from traffic and misdemeanor violations to rape and murder.

There are 10 to 15 people assigned to the Sheriff's Department's Fugitive Detail, but there is not enough staff throughout the department to address all of the arrest warrants that have been issued, officials said.

``There is no way the Fugitive Detail could arrest everyone with a warrant out,'' said Hellmold.

Alexander said the Sheriff's Department recently has started a program in conjunction with the District Attorney's Office to identify high-priority warrants, which include deadbeat dads and high-grade felonies.

``We are taking active steps to locate these folks, utilizing current technologies,'' he said.