By Sonja Elmquist
The News & Record (Greensboro, NC)
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Having your picture in the paper often signifies achievement, importance or acclaim.
Except when it means you’re a wanted fugitive.
That might explain why the first question some people ask the Greensboro police as they are arrested is “Why did you have to put my picture in the paper?”
The answer is simple, say police and Crimestoppers workers. It works.
Since the Feb. 24 debut of “Guilford County’s Most Wanted” in the Monday issue of the News & Record, 25 of those featured have been caught or turned themselves in. The feature includes suspects sought by Greensboro and High Point police and the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office.
Compared to the 12,000-warrant backlog the Greensboro Police Department faces, that’s barely a drop in the bucket.
No one with the police department or Crimestoppers could say with certainty what effect the feature has had on their arrests, but they provided plenty of stories suggesting there is an impact.
“Some things are hard to measure, but we know it’s helping,” said Officer B.J. Bailiff, a member of Greensboro’s warrant squad.
One suspect’s grandmother called him after seeing his picture in the newspaper and told him she was disappointed in him, said Sgt. James Moore, supervisor of Greensboro’s warrant squad. After the conversation, the grandson turned himself in to police, driven by guilt at letting his grandmother down, Moore said.
Crimestoppers workers and police say increasing the visibility of the most violent and hardest-to-catch fugitives makes it easier to whittle that number down.
With only a few officers to devote to serving warrants, law enforcement agencies in Guilford County rely on county’s residents to help them find people.
“I can tell you with a certainty that we’ve had calls every single Monday that (the News & Record has) run this,” said Sandy Tew, a Crimestoppers coordinator with the Greensboro Police Department.
Moore submits the wanted suspects that he has had the most difficulty finding. Those are people Greensboro police otherwise would still be looking for, Moore said. Their capture has “made the community a safer place.”
Copyright 2008 The News & Record (Greensboro, NC)