West Point P.D. posts its warrant list on social media to tackle fines

WEST POINT, Miss. (WCBI) – Sheer numbers and a lack of manpower.

These are just a couple of the issues facing area cities when it comes to collecting fines and tracking down people with active warrants.

That has some area police departments thinking outside the box.

In West Point, they’re taking to social media and they’re already starting to see results.

Since the list was posted on the department’s Facebook page on Saturday, Chief Avery Cook said over 50 people have taken care of outstanding fines.

More than 1,200 names and over a million dollars in unpaid fines line these 52 pages.

This is the West Point Police Department’s warrant list and it was recently posted on Facebook for the public to see.

“I had several calls from people saying, ‘Y’all are putting my business out in the streets and stuff.’ And that’s not our intent at all. Our intent is to collect this money that is owed to the city. We’re not trying to embarrass anybody. That was not our main purpose. Our main purpose was to collect fines,” said Chief Avery Cook.

So far, it seems to be paying off.

“Some people didn’t know they had fines because people come up and press charges on you and you are unaware of it and then they don’t have a correct address on you, or phone number where we can contact you, so and, we did have people call in and say, ‘I didn’t know I had a warrant.’ And, they came up and we gave them a court date and released them.”

Fines range from unpaid parking tickets, to failure to appear in court, even simple assault.

“It help clears our warrant list and we don’t really have the manpower or the time to go out and serve all of these warrants, so this was in effective way we thought to get people to come in.”

Cook said if your name is on the list and you owe the city money there are different ways to pay the fines off, from payment plans, to actually working them off.

“The work program is something that’s always been available. There are certain limitations based on people’s background and criminal history. However, it’s something that’s available and we plan to use that if people are unable to pay,” says West Point Municipal Judge Mark Cliett.

Judge Cliett and Chief Cook both said they hope to resolve everything without anybody having to go to jail.

“Jail is the last resort. I’ve seen several people commenting on social media that they say, ‘Oh, well we shouldn’t be arresting all of these people.’ I gave a February 22 court date, as an effort for people to come to court without being arrested so we can resolve these things.”

People on the list must either pay their fines in full or appear in Municipal Court on February 22 at 9 a.m.

If the fines aren’t paid or other arrangements made by then, warrants previously issued will be served, then people will be arrested and held until they can be seen in court.