(Washington, DC) The Fugitive Safe Surrender program in DC yielded 530 surrenders. Of these, 15 percent found that they were not wanted for a warrant.  Approximately 30 percent were for traffic cases and approximately 70 percent constituted criminal charges. 245 surrendered on Saturday.

Out of a total of 530 surrendering, ten were arrested: three were arrested for a domestic violence--assault and battery cases, five were arrested for escape from a correctional facility, one was arrested for armed robbery and one was arrested for a felony assault. The remaining received new court dates or had their case resolved and returned home.

Example Participants

• The first in line Friday morning walked from Landover, MD to honor his mother’s birthday request to surrender.
• An offender, serving time at a halfway house after serving 15 years for a violent crime, brought his father in to surrender on a warrant for a drug case.
• A female participant surrendered after her estranged husband told her that he had sworn a warrant for assault. She discovered that no warrant existed.
• One woman surrendered on a 20-year-old shoplifting warrant.

An interview of the first person surrendering at Bible Way on Friday is available on the “DC Public Safety” podcasting site, http://media.csosa.gov, in the audio podcasts section. The audio is also available on www.dcsafesurrender.org under audio and video. Audio of the first person to surrender at the Bible Way church on Thursday is also available.

Fugitive Safe Surrender Basics

When: The program began on Thursday, November 1 and ended on Saturday, November 3.  Hours were from 9 am to 5 pm.
Where: The location was the Bible Way church, 1100 New Jersey Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20001 at the intersection of New York and New Jersey Avenues.

• www.dcsafesurrender.org
• Telephone Answering System at (202) 585-SAFE

Fugitive Safe Surrender is a national program of the US Marshals Service and is being supported by the DC Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. The national program website is http://www.usmarshals.gov/safesurrender.