When defendants fail to appear (FTA) for scheduled court appearances, extra work is placed on court, law enforcement and jail
resources. The courts must issue a warrant for defendants that fail to appear, law enforcement must arrest or ticket a person
who has a warrant due to failing to appear, and the jail must house these defendants when they are arrested on their warrants.
Reducing the failure to appear rate is an important way to prevent unnecessary use of these resources.
In 2006, the Sheriff’s Office began a pilot program calling County Court defendants to remind them of their court dates in
order to prevent FTA’s. Once the project got up and running, the phone call reminders began to show a significant impact in
reducing FTA’s. The preliminary results were positive: defendants who were contacted had a 12% lower FTA rate than defendants
who were not contacted.
The program has expanded and more calls are being made to County Court and District Court defendants. In the last year, 7,664
calls were made in County Court and the FTA rate is cut in half when a defendant is contacted from 21.4% to 9.9%. Also, 3,251
calls were made in District Court in the last year and the FTA rate is cut by two-thirds when a defendant is contacted, from
9.0% to 3.5%.
Reduction of FTA’s has system-wide resource savings. Court staff, municipal law enforcement, and Sheriff’s Office staff save
resources. The program will be expanded if additional staffing resources become available. Jail bed days to incarcerate inmates
for warrants are also saved, reducing crowding and management issues in the jail.
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