WANTED! - PUBLIC'S HELP IN LOCATING 'WANTED' INDIVIDUALS

Will County Sheriff Mike Kelley is pleased to announce the successful first year anniversary in the renovation of the Sheriff's Fugitive Warrant Division.  Prior to the revamping, the Warrant Division's main objective was basically a transport unit.  Sheriff's deputies were responsible for transporting individuals with active warrants from surrounding counties and bringing them to the Will County Adult Detention Facility.  With the newly instated changes, the division is now 'apprehension focused', in other words, actively seeking those individuals with outstanding warrants within Will County.

Within the past year, the success of the division is clear with 963 warrants being served.  Twenty-four of those offenders were charged with additional crimes at the scene.  Seized in those warrants was:  2.8 grams of Heroin, 7.7 grams of Mushrooms, 50 grams of Cocaine, 106.5 grams of Methamphetamine, and 498.2 grams of Cannabis.  In addition, deputies seized six illegal firearms, two vehicles, and over $11,000 USC.

In the Sheriff's Office tireless efforts to get offenders off the street, we have added three initiatives for the public to assist us in our continued success.  One of the ways the Sheriff's Office is getting the word out is the recently installed T.V. monitors inside the Will County Courthouse.  These monitors have a continuous scroll of 'Wanted' individuals.  As many as 2600 people, including employees, visit the courthouse daily.  It is our hope that tips in locating these individuals will be generated to the Sheriff's Office.

Another successful addition is the "Warrant of the Week" that is posted on the Will County Sheriff's Facebook page.  Since the start of these posts, several 'Wanted' individuals have been located and arrested, proving its success.

The most recent effort to get the word out to the public is our new website:  www.willcountywarrants.com.  This website is extremely informative.  The hope is that people will visit the site in order to identify those who have active warrants within their neighborhoods, at their jobs, or people they may know, and that they will provide us with tips or information that will be helpful in locating them.  This website provides users to search by name, address, and offenses.  It also provides users to search on maps by towns, municipal police department warrants, and you can even search yourself if you think you may have an outstanding warrant.  The site provides instructions on what you need to do to take care of the warrant or ask any question regarding it.

The Sheriff's Office is excited about the accomplishments in the first year of these changes.  But, with the public's help, we know that we can do an even better job at apprehending offenders.  No tip or piece of information is too small.  All information supplied by visitors to the www.willcountywarrants.com site can remain anonymous.

Take a few minutes..."Like" us on Facebook and visit our new website!

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