On the last day of a program for people wanted for nonviolent crimes to turn themselves in, more than 80 people were already in line at 9 a.m.
The program, which kicked off Wednesday at the New Metropolitan Baptist Church on McCulloh Street in West Baltimore, provided a chance for 985 people with outstanding warrants to turn themselves in and aimed to reduce some of the 40,000 outstanding warrants in the city.
"It's been an overwhelming success," said Deputy U.S. Marshal David Lutz, spokesman for the agency.
Within hours, residents could turn themselves in, get booked, face a judge and have their charges dropped to began the expungement process, avoiding a trip to Central Booking after a run-in with police.
"We can learn from what we did here," said Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy. "I'm hopeful to have someone that can do that on a constant basis and not have 40,000 outstanding warrants," she said, referring to Assistant State's Attorney Patricia Deros , who spent weeks prior to the program wading through old files to weed out weak cases because key witnesses were either dead or otherwise unavailable. Many of the crimes, such as decades-old charges of loitering and drinking in public, were deemed too minor to bother with so many years later.
Charges ranged from drug possession, nuisance offenses, petty theft, probation violations and failure to appear in court. One of the oldest warrants that dated back to 1978 was for a failure to appear in court.
At least 35 people were taken into custody for more serious charges during the first three days, including one who was being sought for attempted murder and another on a handgun charge, said Detective Jeremy Silbert, spokesman for Baltimore City police. He did not have the number for Saturday.
In past Safe Surrender events in other cities, Washington reported 530, while the city and county of Philadelphia reported 1,248; Wilmington, Del., reported 1,073 people; 1,282 people in Harrisburg, while Detroit/Wayne County had 6,500 people with outstanding warrants participate in the four-day program.
Baltimore's turnout is lower because it did not include traffic warrants, and only warrants from the city and Baltimore County District Court were accepted, said Sharon Beth Kristal, national coordinator for Safe Surrender
"We are very pleased with the turnout and the program was a success," said Kimberly Barranco, executive director of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council.
"We helped hundreds of people," she said, saying that people formed lines each morning, with the program doing steady business throughout the day.
On the first day, more than 70 people were lined up in the morning, and by the end of the day, 175 had resolved their cases.
And long after doors closed Saturday, court clerks, law enforcement officers, attorneys and judges continued to process people, Kristal said.
"People for the most part didn't have to wait outside in the heat," she said. "Most were calm, patient."
Jessamy said that the program's organization was good practice should an emergency situation occur that would require the courts to function outside the courthouse, like in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina.
"It's always impressive to see the organizations work together," Kristal said.
