Posted:
Halifax Regional Police held its inaugural Voluntary Surrender event on Saturday, April 29, at the Dartmouth North Community Centre. The event was an opportunity for people with outstanding warrants for non-violent offences to resolve the warrants voluntarily in a neutral environment.
The successful event resulted in 19 warrants being resolved. Twelve people attended Voluntary Surrender, five of whom had more than one outstanding warrant and two of whom thought they had outstanding warrants, but didn’t.
“We’re very pleased with the success of this event. Similar events have been successful in the US, but we believe this is the first of its kind in Canada, and certainly a first for us. We’re proud that we were able to offer the opportunity with the support of Nova Scotia Legal Aid, the Public Prosecution Service and 211 and that people took advantage of it,” says Inspector Don Moser.
Though people with outstanding warrants can turn themselves in at any of HRP’s locations at any time, HRP’s goal was to reduce the number of outstanding warrants in our area by providing a more appealing opportunity for people to surrender voluntarily. Just prior to Voluntary Surrender, there were 684 outstanding warrants on file with HRP.
As a follow up to Voluntary Surrender, HRP will be assessing the outstanding warrants that remain and exploring other ways to continue to reduce the number of warrants on file.