By Bob Stiles, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
It may become known as the quick and long arm of newspaper readers.
Thanks to subscribers of the Tribune-Review and Herald-Standard newspapers, state police at Uniontown said Thursday that they have satisfied nearly 50 outstanding warrants, all in less than a week’s time.
Earlier this month at the barracks’ request, the newspapers ran a list of names of about 150 people who were wanted on outstanding warrants.
Readers then called in with tips that led to arrests. Others on the list surrendered after seeing their printed names.
“We had a great response from the citizens,” said Trooper Juan Curry, barracks warrant officer.
It was the first time that the barracks had asked media to print such a list, part of an effort to reduce a backlog of cases.
The Trib published the police-supplied list in its Dec. 3 edition. The Herald-Standard printed the list the next day.
Curry said the telephone calls from readers kept police stepping.
“We were getting inundated with calls for the first few days. It was tough to keep up with the calls,” he said.
The “cleared warrants” involved about 10 people who were charged with felony or misdemeanor offenses, the trooper said. The remaining approximately 40 satisfied warrants concerned summary charges, including for traffic offenses.
Tips, many made anonymously, came from all sorts of readers, Curry said. They included landlords and angry family members.
One person on the list called from Louisiana after his mother phoned him and said his name had appeared in the newspaper, police said. Authorities were in the process of arranging his surrender.
Another person called authorities after her pharmacist said he read her name in the paper.
“Some individuals came in themselves,” Curry said. “They didn’t like the fact their names were in the paper.
“Some didn’t know, due to moving.”
Curry said those people who called in after seeing their names were given the opportunity to surrender at the involved district justice’s office. Wanted people who didn’t phone in, but were located through tips, were taken into custody.
In all, six people were “picked up after we received information on their whereabouts,” Curry said.
On Monday, The Daily Press, based in Newport News, Va., ran a police-paid advertisement that contained the names of nearly 4,000 people with outstanding warrants, according to Editor & Publisher magazine.
As of Tuesday morning, 64 people on that list were arrested and processed, with several of them surrendering after reading their names in the ad, the magazine reported.
The list of 3,947 names included about 1,000 people charged with felonies, such as rape, robbery and murder, according to E&P.
The police department paid $6,000 for the ad, also part of an effort to reduce a backlog of cases, said police Chief James Fox.
Curry said newspaper readers can be a big help to police.
“Wanted people need to be aware that once their name appears in the paper, not only are the police looking for them but also the thousands of eyes of citizens,” he said.