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Sweeping the streets of criminals for a safer holiday season
Posted: 12.08.2011 at 1:03 PM
Fraendy Clervaud

raendy Clervaud is a morning news anchor for Good Day Columbia.

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COLUMBIA (WACH) -- It’s about 3:00 am Monday and some Midlands law enforcement officials are ready to take to the streets to find several people who have active warrants against them.

“It’s a profile so we have the offender photo; we have the last known addresses basically their genetic makeup,” says Sergeant Amanda Jordan, Richland County Sheriff's Department Community Action Team.

Richland County Sheriffs Department, U.S Marshals and the South Carolina Department of Probation, Pardon and Parole all part of this holiday sweep. Authorities say most of suspects are wanted for armed robbery, grand larceny and burglary. I was assigned to a team consisting of six investigators who were tasked to find thirteen suspects. After leaving the meeting spot early Monday morning investigators set off in the wee hours of the morning knocking on doors, flashlights in hand, hoping to find the suspects from their list. Even the K-9 units were involved.

“Some addresses and locations will be valid as far as them still living there but as the case we just left here in the Greenview Community this individual no longer stays in this area,” says Sergeant Jordan.

This operation is just one way authorities try to make the streets safer during the holiday season.

“That would be so devastating to not feel safe during the holiday season. This is the joyous time of the year and that's really important to our sheriff’s department to make sure our citizens do feel safe,” says Sergeant Jordan.

Investigators say they never know what to expect but their thankful for the training they receive to cover each other during sweeps like this one.

It’s always suspenseful. There’s always a level of danger when entering some else's dwelling of home. That’s a big thing were going into this peoples residences early morning hours. We have the element of surprise on our side just because one we are waking them up,” says Sergeant Jordan.

As it approached 8:00 am Monday the group of investigators I shadowed knocked on their last door. Authorities later learned the suspect they were looking for had been arrested in Texas.

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