There are over one-half million felony or other serious fugitives listed in the National Crime Information Center database. Yet, this is far less than the actual number of dangerous fugitives roaming the streets because many states do not put all dangerous wanted persons into the database. As recently reported in the Washington Post, California has 2.5 million unserved felony and misdemeanor warrants, and Baltimore has 61,000. Although violent crime in the United States has been decreasing in recent years, the number of serious fugitives has been climbing. The number of N.C.I.C. fugitives has doubled since 1987, and continues to rise steadily each year.
Fugitives are the achilles heel of law enforcement today.
As the number of warrants rise, the problem can almost be overwhelming for law enforcement. Indeed, no one knows exactly how many fugitives there are. Each statistic represents a story. A few weeks ago, two men robbed a Wendy's restaurant in New York. To make sure there were no witnesses, they bound, gagged, and shot seven employees in the head execution-style, killing five of them.