The long arm of the law

The 13,515 arrest warrants include 345 issued by the Supreme and District courts, which deal with serious crimes including violent assaults, child abuse, rape and murder.

The majority of the warrants (12,555) were issued in magistrates courts, which deal with crimes ranging from drink-driving and assaults, through to more serious crimes before they are sent to the higher courts.

It would appear the long arm of the law is stretched to its limit. If we have over 13, 000 transgressors who have not been brought to justice then we have a very unfair system. It may well be over taxed and over worked but it is none the less unfair. Obviously there is safety in numbers and people can become aware of that. If you swamp any system, then it will fail to function efficiently. If that many people have been issued with arrest warrants then it is important to follow through. Given the article says the numbers have now fallen then these outstanding ones just have to be caught up with in a slow , long haul and maybe extra personnel need to be employed just to get through the back log and at least sort them into a priority order. The police and justice system would obviously have a better idea of how this can be managed. They cannot be left because it just weakens the system if people know it will be easier to get away with even serious thing if there a number of transgressors. My question is why are there so many and what have we done better to get fewer? That is a lot of arrest warrants. Someone who has commented suggests the name and shame. I guess that would be a quick and easy way to alert others and to at least do something which would show there is action being taken and these people have not been forgotten. Might also be a way of locating those who appear to be out of contact. Work out a way of dealing with it and just deal with it.