MACON, Ga. — Former GBI Agent-in-Charge JT Ricketson is challenging incumbent David Davis for Bibb County Sheriff. We took a closer look at outstanding arrest warrants in Bibb County.
An outstanding warrant is when there is a warrant out for someone's arrest, and it has not been served.
According to the Bibb County Sheriff's Office, they've got 4,155 active outstanding warrants here in Bibb County. Around Christmastime of 2019, Bibb County Sheriff's Office told 13 WMAZ they had at least one outstanding arrest warrant on file for roughly 3,000 people.
We spoke to both candidates about whether these outstanding warrants are a problem and how to deal with it.
"There are over 3,000 fugitives that are roaming our streets right now, freely walking around, that have active warrants on them. Some of those are misdemeanors, but the majority of them are felony fugitives," Ricketson said.
But Sheriff Davis says his challenger is wrong.
According to data from the Bibb County Sheriff's Office, 57 percent of current outstanding warrants are for misdemeanors, and the rest are for felonies.
"Less than one percent of them are for the major criminal charges like armed robbery, burglary, aggravated assault, rape, murder, so those serious charges and warrants are served almost immediately," Davis said.
Davis says one problem with serving those warrants is that Bibb County's jail fits only 966 people.
"You're going to overload the jail," Davis said, "And what we have found many times is that many of these individuals may have a failure to appear warrant for a traffic ticket or a probation warrant., and other than that, they're living a law-abiding life."
Regardless, JT Ricketson says the county needs to start a warrant team.
"These are the guys and women that come together every morning and they sit down and say, 'We've got 3,000-plus fugitives in our area,' and they start prioritizing those from the most violent all the way down," Ricketson said.
Ricketson says he would start by assigning at least six to eight deputies to a team.
"That would be the minimum I would have to look at, or they wouldn't be effective," Ricketson said.
Davis says a team isn't needed and that every deputy acts as a warrant server. He says Bibb County Sheriff's Office has around five deputies who transport people from other jails to Bibb County, and that two deputies are a part of the U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force.
Davis says that group serves many of the county's major warrants.
"So what would you do, take those two deputies off of a very effective unit that is multi-jurisdictional?" Davis said.
Bibb County Sheriff's Office says through September of this year, they have served a total of 2,450 warrants.
Early voting is underway now through Friday, Oct. 30. Election day is next Tuesday.