Want to dodge that DUI? Move to Camden
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
A new investigation uses Philly to show how fugitives can avoid prosecution by just crossing the bridge to another state.
USA Today map
Interesting investigation of state-to-state extradition at USA Today that uses Philadelphia as a case study in how fugitives accused of crimes that will be difficult to prosecute can often avoid prosecution indefinitely by simply leaving the state, like Thomas Terlecky, who fled the state after being charged with a first-degree felony for statutory rape:
Terlecky said that in the 17 years he has been a fugitive, he has lost count of how many times Florida police threw him in jail in hopes of returning him to Pennsylvania. But the arrests all end the same way. In November, Miami-Dade police detained him after he was pulled over for an obscured license plate. A few hours later, Philadelphia officials "asked that (he) be released" because they were unwilling to travel beyond Pennsylvania's neighboring states to get him, according to police records. An officer drove him home.
Many of the Philadelphians wanted on outstanding felony warrants for things other than murder and rape, have avoided trial by just crossing the bridge to New Jersey, as the time and paperwork involved can be brutal:
Camden police catch and release Philadelphia fugitives "all the time," said Capt. John Fetzer, the head of a sheriff's fugitive-tracking unit there. Most are "pretty much scot-free here as long as they stay here in New Jersey."
There's a pretty neat map showing where the areas where Philadelphia fugitives live, with a huge number of them in Camden. There's also a separate response from DA Seth Williams, who says essentially yeah, this is a problem, but Philadelphia was picked to demonstrate it not because it's any worse here than in other cities, but because our records are unusually accessible. He says they're working on the extradition thing, but there's only so much they can do with the money they get:
For certain serious crimes, we will routinely request nationwide extradition. For others, we may request extradition in a more limited geographic area. And in the least serious cases, we may decide not to extradite — because we still have to make sometimes tough calls, without a crystal ball, about allocating scarce resources.
Anyway, it's a really interesting read — check it out.
