The Starkville Police Department formed a special unit of officers to crack down on violators who have not paid outstanding fines.
The new police team started Wednesday and will target anyone who has written a bad check, failed to appear at a court date or has unpaid traffic and court fines.
“We were requested to help by the district attorney’s bad check unit, and we have enough problems with unpaid fines that we can use special officers,” said Starkville Police Chief David Lindley.
Lindley said that individuals with outstanding fines will be arrested.
Every month in Clay, Lowndes, Noxubee and Oktibbeha counties, between 400 and 600 bad checks are sent to the district attorney’s office. This number has been consistent since the unit began in 1989, but they do not reflect how many bad checks are written in the area.
“The merchant who gets the check has a series of procedures that they must go through before giving it to us,” said Renee Cabiness, director of the bad check unit.
After finding that the check is insufficient, a merchant is required to notify the check-holder and give that person 15 days to respond before turning the check over to the district attorney’s office where a letter is sent to the writer. If the offender still has not paid after 10 days, a warrant is issued, Cabiness said.
“These people have several opportunities before it gets to this,” Cabiness added.
Many residents of Starkville support the police department’s increased attention to these offenders.
“It is a really good thing because people who drive a car or have a checking account should be responsible enough to handle them,” said Monique Davis, a senior math major.
“These offenders know that they are breaking the law when they do these things, so I think that this is a really good thing,” said Yancie Gentry, a senior finance student.
“It should reduce the number of people that purposefully write bad checks,” Gentry added.
Davis said she feels that this could be a deterrent to potential offenders.
“Knowing what they might do to me, I would never try to pay for something with a check that I did not have the money for,” Davis said. “Maybe this will keep these people from breaking the law.”
Although the police department has tightened enforcement on this issue, they hope that residents will not force the department to apprehend them.
“We are hoping that they will come in voluntarily,” Lindley said.