APD warrant roundup gets fugitives off street

A whole lot more accused bad guys are off the street today.

Albuquerque police, with the help of other agencies, have been conducting a four-day warrant sweep that was expected to end today.

Throughout the sweep, Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz was using social media to report its progress, tweeting updates on how many people with active warrants had been caught in the net of officers serving the warrants. As of early Thursday evening, more than 300 warrants had been cleared when fugitives either were picked up or turned themselves in to Metro Court, according to APD spokeswoman Tasia Martinez.

The names of almost 600 fugitives were published on a one-page insert in Sunday’s Journal and are now posted online at www.ABQJournal.com. APD is working with Crime Stoppers, KOB Eyewitness News 4, the U.S. Marshal and U.S. Secret Service to help clear the outstanding warrants, which number more than 10,000 in Bernalillo County.

The crimes for which the suspects are wanted run the gamut from larceny to murder, with a whole lot of burglary, drug trafficking, fraud, forgery, embezzlement and battery in between.

Anyone with knowledge of these suspects’ whereabouts would be doing the public a favor and help make the city safer by reporting it to Crime Stoppers at www.crimestoppersnm.org. If civic duty is not enough, the right information could lead to a reward.

Either way, dropping the dime on some of these people would be a good deed for society.