More than 50,000 criminal warrants are waiting to be served in Prince George's County, Md.
The new sheriff said many of them are part of backlog that includes warrants dating to the 1960s.
"Generally, the more serious the crime, the harder people work to hide themselves, but that's the challenging work," Sheriff Melvin High said. "But we've taken that challenge and our people are getting it done."
Ninety days into his term, High released stats on warrants waiting to be served. Of the thousands, 860 are for felonies, including 47 for murder.
A full 45,000 of the warrants are for misdemeanors, which incensed a citizen at the sheriff's briefing Wednesday.
"We need to be following the same policy that Virginia uses," Elsie Jacobs said. "After three years, if they're misdemeanors, get rid of them. We have too much other crime going on that's more serious than the misdemeanor."
"We are in focused pursuit of our suspects every day, and we have been successful in finding and arresting numerous felons in last three months alone," Col. Darrin Palmer said.
Many of the warrants are for people in custody in other jurisdictions, Palmer said.
High has made the warrant issue an urgent priority, reassigning deputies and hiring new people for the warrant squad. His office is examining how others around the country handle warrants and is considering new technology for deputies on the street.
"If a warrant is listed for an address within a certain radius of your patrol, it will give you an alert that it's an outstanding warrant there," he said.
