Sikeston police seek arrest of 60 for unpaid fines

Sikeston police headed out Monday to arrest approximately 60 people who failed to pay municipal fines.

As of noon, 20 people were arrested and three people showed up and paid fines so the warrants would not be served.

The municipal court staff was flooded with phone calls asking if fines needed to be paid in order to avoid arrest.

"Some of the people I'm sure may have forgotten about the fines, but after the wakeup calls this morning they seemed to remember," said Public Safety chief Drew Juden.

"Which is why they started calling in after officers started knocking on their doors with arrest warrants in hand."

Many of the fines were several years old. Sgt. Todd Peters, Sgt. Rickey Rapert and officer Shirley Porter spent about two weeks putting the paperwork together for Monday's sweep.

All but one of the arrests occurred without incident. In one case, an offender took off running but was quickly caught by officers.