Power of the printed paper helps rural South Carolina sheriff clear up outstanding warrants

The sheriff in rural Darlington County, South Carolina (Wikipedia map), is using the power of the press to clean up outstanding arrest warrants in his jurisdiction of 68,000 people, and is earning praise all the way to Nebraska for his efforts. Sheriff J.W. Byrd, who was re-elected in June, turned to the local paper, the News and Press, to help clear out old warrants through a public notice that each week fills a quarter of a newspaper page with names of people names in the warrants, encouraging them to clear up the issues, Kent Warneke writes for the Norfolk Daily News. "Of the 200 names listed in the newspaper over four weeks, 70 citizens came forward to resolve their warrants. Many more people came forward who had not been named because they wanted to avoid having their names in the newspaper."

The sheriff's department also lists names of people with outstanding warrants on its website, but only 10 of those people have come forward to clear up their warrants, Warneke writes, making a point newspapers like to make in their efforts to stop state legislatures from letting local governments put legal notices online instead of buying public-notice ads in newspapers. The sheriff's office "has fielded 800 to 1,000 calls about outstanding arrest warrants within that four-week period when normally, the office gets only a few calls a year on the same topic," Warneke reports.

"Kudos to the sheriff for being willing to work with his local newspaper on this experiment. The response may have surprised him, but it probably didn’t surprise his local newspaper editor, and it didn’t surprise me," Warneke writes. "What I also found interesting was that the South Carolina sheriff said he received many calls from people wanting to clear up warrants — before their name appeared in the newspaper. That speaks volume to the impact a print publication still possesses. You can see something on a website, but until it’s in print, it takes on a whole new level of significance." (Read more)

The South Carolina Press Association correctly notes this week that legal ads can provide good news stories, and announces that its next contest will include a $200 prize for best news story developed from a legal ad. "It doesn’t take long for an editor or reporter to scan the legals," the association notes. "Graham Osteen of The Item tells of the time his newsroom found out about the proposed location of a huge pig farm in their area through a legal ad. Coverage that followed led to abandonment of the plan, much to the relief of neighbors."