Wagoner PD Offers Amnesty Program For Outstanding Warrants

Wagoner is offering an Amnesty Program to people who have outstanding warrants in the city. 

Right now, there are more than 2,500 outstanding warrants in the City of Wagoner and the police department is just hoping to help the city out by offering a program to encourage people to come forward at no extra cost.     

“Even if they're a passenger in a vehicle and you run a warrant check on them you can still get arrested,” said Wagoner Police Chief Bob Haley.

Right now, there are more than 2,000 people who, if pulled over in Wagoner, could end up behind bars on an outstanding warrant. 

“If you get arrested when you are driving in a vehicle you can get arrested for the warrant and for whatever charges that you were initially stopped for. Your vehicle can be impounded. It can be pretty pricey,” said Haley.

Traffic violations, petty larceny, and fighting are all some of the reasons for outstanding warrants. And now for the first time ever, Wagoner is giving offenders a unique opportunity to clear their record and save some money. 

“It gives them the opportunity to avoid the extra charge for the failure to appear, failure to pay charge which is anywhere from $150 to $200 depending on when the warrant was,” said Haley. 

People can set up a payment plan to get back on track or if they can't afford to pay, a judge may substitute community service. But the court clerk said people are taking advantage of it. 

“All of them have indicated that they've received a lot of phone calls, inquiries things of that nature,” Haley said. 

Because there are many reasons why a person could be missing the deadline. 

“Sometimes they just don't have it, they don't realize that they can come to court and work on a payment plan,” said Haley.

Giving people a way to pay off their debt to society while also getting as much off the books as possible. 

Haley said, “It's an opportunity for us to help the city out and help those out here too.”

If you do have an outstanding warrant in Wagoner, you can go to city hall or call the city court clerk and go from there. 

The program ends on February 15.