More than 13,000 crimes have been reported in Baltimore so far this year, according to online statistics from the Baltimore Police Department’s.
But how many of those crimes have resulted in a warrant, and arrest of an individual?
According to the Baltimore Police Department, the Warrant Apprehension Task Force served 2,211 warrants in 2022. By the end of the year, 62 warrants went unserved, with the majority of those (57) for felony crimes.
Unserved warrants, a law enforcement experts said, is a nationwide problem that also exists in the Baltimore region.
“Our research shows fugitives on the run commit more crime,” said Don Snider, Commander with the Capital Area Regional Task Force, which is a regional task force under the US Marshals Service.
Snider spoke to the issue of unserved warrants when asked how long the 95 fugitives recently arrested in a regional sweep had been wanted.
“Our research shows fugitives on the run commit more crime. The mission of the Task Force is to investigate, locate and arrest these violent offenders to prevent them from committing more crimes in our communities,” said Snider. “We caught fugitives who were on the run for a little while and some that were recently wanted.”
Recent cases in Baltimore include last month’s arrest of repeat, violent offender Terrell Parker.
When Parker was arrested on drug distribution charges May 6, court records show the 26-year-old already had three open warrants for his arrest, including for attempted murder. One warrant was nearly six months old.
Another case, the Mervo High School teen charged in the Jan. 2022 shooting death of a Baltimore Police Lieutenant’s husband, James Blue III.
Court records show suspect Sahiou Kargbo had unserved warrants in Baltimore County and Baltimore City prior to Blue’s murder.
Law enforcement expert Jason Johnson said the issue of unserved warrants comes down to staffing and budgeting.
“The Warrant Apprehension Task Force, which is the component of the police department that is out looking for people, they don't have the resources or the manpower to track down every single person with a warrant so therefore you're going to have a lot of people who have open warrants, going about their business and just committing other crimes. It really gets down to the resources in Baltimore,” said Johnson.
In the past, the Baltimore Police Department has said the agency prioritizes warrants based on the severity of the crime.
For example, the unserved warrant for Kargbo in Baltimore City was for a November 2021 case in which the teen was charged with several gun-related offenses. The warrant was issued on December 28, 2021, four weeks before Blue’s murder.
The other, unserved warrant was issued out of Baltimore County and related to an armed robbery. Court records show a judge approved a search of Kargbo’s home several days before Blue’s homicide.
"We have to look at the resources that are being put into warrants,” said Baltimore City Sheriff Sam Cogen, weighing in on the topic.
Since taking office at the beginning of this year, Cogen says he’s more than doubled his warrant apprehension task force, but what kind of warrants the Agency serves has not change and Cogen believes it should as a way to help the issue.
“We all need to come together and find a way that we can look at the warrants that are priority warrants where we have these repeat violent offenders and all of us do a better job at trying to get them off the streets,” said Cogen.