Scott Swope Democratic Candidate for Pinellas County Sheriff P.O.

Box 1021 Palm Harbor, FL 34682-1021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Scott Swope 727-743-0800 SwopeforSheriff@gmail.com

Swope lauds FSA for protecting Pinellas County residents

PALM HARBOR, Fla. (Oct. 4, 2012) -- Scott Swope, the Democratic candidate for Pinellas County sheriff, wrote to the president of the Florida Sheriff's Association today, thanking the organization for taking steps to protect the residents of Pinellas County. The FSA is sponsoring a statewide effort to encourage county sheriffs to serve unserved warrants and to reduce their number. Pinellas County has more unserved warrants than nearly any other county under interim sheriff Bob Gualtieri, and Gualtieri has done virtually nothing to reduce the number of those warrants. Gualtieri did, however, agree to take part in the FSA's statewide effort. "I'm delighted to see that the FSA has stepped up to confront these warrants," Swope said in his letter. "Under Bob Gualtieri, the unserved warrants in Pinellas County have swelled to more than 56,000, and the number of felony warrants has grown to more than 14,000. This represents a significant safety threat to the residents of Pinellas County, a threat that the FSA obviously recognizes even if Gualtieri does not." Swope discovered the number of unserved warrants in Gualtieris office several weeks ago, and brought them to the attention of the public. Also, he has offered a number of suggestions for reducing the number of the outstanding warrants, including:

An intensive county-wide sweep, not unlike the program suggested by the Florida Sheriffs Association and loosely modeled on a sweep conducted in 2011 by the Tampa Police Department A comprehensive 10-point plan that included everything from finding and removing the names of dead people from the warrants list to luring wanted people through offers of fictitious prizes.

Swope gave a copy of the 10-point plan to Gualtieri at a debate in September, but Gualtieri has not acted on any of its recommendations. The Tampa Bay TIMES has closely examined the warrants issue in an in-depth three-part series. Then, in an editorial, it said that the next sheriff should find better ways to address the unserved warrants issue. Even so, after the election, there should be a thorough review of how arrest warrants are handled, weighing that effort with other priorities, the editorial said. Pinellas should be more in line with other Tampa Bay counties and its peers around Florida in serving warrants, regardless of how it is done. Scott Swope is the Democratic candidate for sheriff, running against Bob Gualtieri, the interim sheriff appointed by Gov. Rick Scott. Swope, a former traffic homicide investigator and magistrate, is running on a platform focused on violent crimes, traffic safety, crimes against seniors and children, human trafficking, and responsible gun ownership. He has broad support across party lines includes numerous current and former elected officials, the Fraternal Order of Police Pinellas Lodge 43, the AFL-CIO, and the Libertarian Party of Pinellas County. -0Editors note: For additional information or comments, please contact Scott Swope at 727743-0800 or at SwopeforSheriff@gmail.com .