The Franklin County Commissioners Office is starting a legal help center for people with outstanding misdemeanor warrants.
The center stems from an idea in St. Louis County, Missouri and was brought to Franklin County by Commissioner Erica Crawley, after a two-year fellowship with the National Association of Counties Core Justice Initiative.
“St. Louis was trying to reduce their jail population by having people be diverted for non-violent offenses,” Crawley said. “And I thought that would be a really great initiative for us to implement here in Franklin County.”
The center offers legal aid to community members who have outstanding low-level, non-violent misdemeanor warrants.
“When they come to the Tap In Center, there's a prosecutor there. They get to speak with the administrative judge. The administrative judge and the prosecutor would have to agree that this is an instance where the warrant could be set aside and a new court date would be offered,” Crawley explained.
The Tap In Center is aiming to offer a more holistic legal approach to community members. The center offers on-site service providers, including Child Support Enforcement, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and Job and Family Services.
Crawley also explained how it can be easy for some people to miss a court date and get a warrant.
“Somebody might have gotten a ticket for a broken tail light, or something very minor and then they missed their court date, if they had one,” Crawley said. “Or you have someone who may have had a non violent offense (such as) driving on a suspended license for maybe multiple times, and missed a court date, but missed the court date because they didn't have child care.”
Crawley shared an example of when a fellow commissioner, Kevin Boyce, didn’t even know about a warrant he had.
“Commissioner Boyce used his example of when he had a rolling stop sign. That ticket that he had, that he took care of, but there was, I guess a miscommunication from him taking care of it when he was in college. A warrant was issued for his arrest. He didn't know that he had a warrant until a background check was performed,” Crawley said. “That's what we see all the time.”
The Commissioner's Office also wants the center to be accessible to the community.
“There is no law enforcement presence,” Crawley stated. “We want people to come out of the shadows. We want them to come and be proactive in addressing their legal issues, and we want them to do it in a way where they're not intimidated and there's no fear of arrest and that's why it's with the community at the library.”
The Tap In Center is open monthly at rotating Columbus Metropolitan Library branches. It is next open from 3 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 19 at the Whitehall Branch.