As more than 6,000 arrest warrants generated out of Warren County sit unserved, law enforcement agencies, the Warren Circuit Court Clerk’s Office and prosecutors here are preparing to implement an electronic warrant management system designed to take criminals off the street faster.

Currently, 5 to 15 percent of issued warrants ultimately are served, Warren County Attorney Amy Milliken said. Once the electronic warrant system, also called e-warrants, is implemented June 8, the rate of warrants served is expected to increase to about 85 percent.

“Our goal will be to eliminate the backlog of unserved warrants, and our statistics indicate that the service rate of warrants will increase dramatically,” Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice John D. Minton Jr. said.

Here’s how the current system works: A judge issues a warrant on paper for a person’s arrest. That paper warrant is then sent to the law enforcement agency that has requested the arrest or the law enforcement agency that serves the arrestee’s address. That agency will attempt to locate the arrestee and serve the warrant. Depending on the charges against the arrestee, other law enforcement agencies across the state might not be aware of the outstanding warrant. If a law enforcement officer from a neighboring county has someone pulled over and is able to determine that an outstanding warrant for that person exists, the officer will have to wait for confirmation that the warrant is valid before making an arrest. The warrant confirmation has to be verified either by phone or fax.

The e-warrant system will change all that.

“The public should be excited about this because” it will cut down on the time between a warrant being issued and served, said Stephen Harmon, Warren County Sheriff’s Office records and telecommunications manager.

In the new warrant process, warrants will be entered immediately into the e-warrant system, which is available to all law enforcement agencies throughout Kentucky, increasing the opportunities for officers anywhere in the state to serve an out-of-county warrant.

“One of my goals as chief justice of Kentucky is to push the Kentucky court system forward in the use of technology that can create efficiencies in the system that will benefit the citizens who rely on the courts,” Minton said. “E-warrants have proven in the counties where they have been used, to be very beneficial in providing round the clock availability for law enforcement to access the warrants.

“A lot of the problems that we’ve encountered over the years with the use of paper warrants will be eliminated when the warrant information is accessible immediately and continuously by electronic means to law enforcement.”

Milliken sees the new system as an extra layer of protection for crime victims.

“I think particularly with domestic violence cases, those warrants need to be immediately served,” Milliken said. “We want to take out human error and human delay. … The quicker you can get the warrant served, the quicker the perpetrator is off of the street.”

Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Cohron agreed that domestic violence cases are one of the key priorities of the new system and added that all crime victims will benefit from electronic warrants.

“If you are the victim of a crime and a warrant is issued for your perpetrator’s address, it allows for that individual to be picked up within minutes versus days,” Cohron said. “It’s been a much needed addition to our court system here in Warren County.”

Meanwhile, officials encourage people who have unpaid fines or who have missed a court date to go to the Warren Circuit Court Clerk’s Office to learn how to resolve their case or to avoid having a warrant issued for their arrest.