Elgin cops say warrant sweep a success

A two-day initiative dubbed “Operation Clean Sweep” allowed Elgin police officers to make 87 warrant arrests in cooperation with almost 20 federal, state, county and local agencies. The effort was one of the largest the city has ever initiated and one the Elgin Police Department is calling a tremendous success.

About 250 law enforcement personnel worked Friday and about 150 worked Saturday in a targeted sweep to reconcile outstanding warrants. Out of the 4,200 total warrants, Elgin chose to go after 225 people, apprehending about 40 percent of them.

Police department spokeswoman Sue Olafson said the effort was primarily about safety.

“That’s the focus of this police department’s administration,” Olafson said. “Anything that we can do to make sure that Elgin streets continue to be safe, we’re going to implement the initiatives that would enable us to do that.”

Law enforcement officials targeted known criminals, including sex offenders, those on parole and people with previous Firearm Owner’s Identification violations.

Olafson said there will be follow-up over the next few weeks to take advantage of leads gained during the two-day effort and continue reducing the number of outstanding warrants.

Lt. Jeff Adam, commander of the Neighborhood Enforcement Team, coordinated the effort. Like Olafson, Adam said the warrant sweep was just the beginning.

“We’re only going to build off of it and continue on this success,” Adam said.

Crime in Elgin was down more than 5 percent in 2010 from the previous year, according to preliminary statistics. Adam said this reduction has allowed law enforcement officials to spend their extra time addressing warrant cases.

Besides the 87 warrant arrests on Friday and Saturday, officials found 10 people in violation of parole, they recovered 12 firearms from Firearm Owner’s Identification violators, they established six new cases because of additional violations and Immigration and Customs Enforcement made eight arrests.