Warrants Team Helps Close Old Cases in Woods

Four public safety officers took to the streets as a warrants team last week armed with a list of names, their addresses, their relatives' addresses and more information.

They arrested eight people who had warrants stemming from not paying fines or fees or not complying with court orders in cases that are more than a year old.

Larger police departments generally have a warrants division, whose officers solely focus on tracking down offenders with outstanding warrants. Having a full-time team dedicated to such enforcement in a small department such as Grosse Pointe Woods is not possible because it would take away from the patrol shift strength.

However, Director Andrew Pazuchowski said he appointed Sgt. Keith Waszak to head up a team to periodically perform warrant roundups as they did last week.

Waszak said the team arrested eight people over two days. Their list contained more than 20 names, Waszak said, explaining he is happy with the number of arrests.

It led to seven court cases being closed because the arrestees were able to pay their fines and fees before even having to go before Judge Theodore Metry. Metry did arraign the remaining arrestee Thursday because the man only had half of what he owed the court, so Metry set a status hearing for next week, he said. 

All of the people being targeted have been given ample opportunity to take care of their outstanding fines or fees before this team is sent to find them, Waszak said. Their offenses range from simple traffic citations to criminal charges.

Retired public safety officer James Lafer, who is now the Woods Municipal Court officer, is the person who attempts to reach those who fail to appear in court and still owe the court money. Lafer creates the list of names for the warrants team, which is made up of Waszak and three other officers.

Lafer spends most of his work days tracking down people who owe the court money or those who have failed to show up for probation, he said. He explains to them that the court wants to work with them but they need to either appear before the judge or pay the fine.

That works for some, Lafer said. Others, he said, may shut off their cell phones to avoid being contacted by him again. During every contact, however, Lafer attempts to gather more information about the person—all of which is passed along to the warrants team.

Following up on open cases in which a person has no intention of complying with the court is important, Lafer said, noting it sends a message that if they get a ticket it cannot simply be ignored.

It likely curbs their behavior that led to the ticket in the first place as well, Lafer said. If people think they can get away with it and not answer to the court, they will continue and repeat the behavior, such as speeding, he said.

An important factor in many of these situations that Metry wants people to understand is related to finances. When an offender is unable to pay the full amount because of a lack of money, Metry said he works with the person. Generally Metry will accept the amount the person can pay and set a status hearing. He will set status hearings until the person is able to pay off the total amount owed, he said.

Most of the offenses themselves are not punishable by jail time but when a person ignores the court order and a warrant is issued, jail becomes a possibility. For most of these cases, that is not a tool Metry wants to use, he said, noting people need to understand the court is willing to work with them.

While Metry believes its a good thing to close old cases, he said the number of warrants he is signing is growing.

"Every week I'm signing more for failure to appear in court," he said.

Yet, Metry also said, those who have to be sought out by the warrants team are in the minority in the bigger picture. "Probably 90 percent of people pay their fines," Metry said.

Officials are hopeful the use of the team will send the message that Grosse Pointe Woods is serious about enforcing court orders, from traffic violation tickets that are issued to criminal offenses.

Ideally the team will be able to perform such sweeps once a quarter, Pazuchowski said. This most recent round was the second time the team has done a sweep.

Waszak said he schedules the team based on manpower. The city is not using any additional money to cover the team, meaning the sweeps are done within normal pay and availability, he said.

For example, Waszak said the officers' vacations are factored into the scheduling equation, because typically manpower is closer to minimum staffing when some area away.

During the last sweep late last year, they arrested about the same number of people, including one person with an operating a vehicle while intoxicated warrant. Last week's arrests included one for larceny, Waszak said.

The offenders, Waszak said, "have been mostly cooperative. Some are upset." Often they tell Waszak and the other officers they were aware of the case and had not gotten around to taking care of it, he said.

The team travels throughout Wayne, Macomb and Oakland counties, Waszak said, noting last week they only traveled into Macomb and Wayne. Local police are notified by the team that they are entering their jurisdiction and advise the reason for the visit before they arrive, Pazuchowski said.

Often times in a smaller department people who fail to either pay a fine or appear in court, the way they are caught is during their next encounter with police, Waszak said, such as a traffic stop.

"We're trying to be proactive rather than reactive," he said.

Officials did not have an exact figure on the total amount of fines or fees collected as a result of the roundups, but the warrants range in unpaid amounts of a few dollars to a few thousand dollars, Waszak said.