Loudon officers seek defendants
560 outstanding warrants focus of 12-hour operation

By Hugh G. Willett, knoxnews.com

Law enforcement officers from seven counties fanned out from the Loudon County Justice Center Thursday afternoon to commence "Operation Apprehension."

The goal of the 12-hour operation was to take into custody as many defendants as possible from a list of 560 outstanding warrants, said Loudon Sheriff Tim Guider.

"Over time, all sheriff's offices will amass a number of criminal warrants that are unable to be served for one reason or another," Guider said. The biggest reason is that the defendant can't be located, Guider said.

In preparation for this operation, the records department and the clerk's office have invested a considerable amount of time and hard work to determine the status of the warrants and locate the most recent address for the defendant, he explained.

Loudon County Sheriff's Office deputies were given a packet of information about the defendants that included a photo, driver's license and copies of the warrant. A mobile communications trailer also will be used to coordinate the arrests and processing of the defendants.

"In order to serve these warrants, we have asked for help from other agencies," Guider said. "We want to serve as many warrants as possible in a 12-hour period."

LCSO deputies were to team up with officers from Anderson, Blount, Knox, Monroe, McMinn and Roane counties. The warrants range from failure to appear, unpaid child support and underage consumption to burglary, assault and homicide, Guider said.

Outside of the 317 warrants to be served in Loudon County itself, Knox County has the second largest number of outstanding warrants at 78. A collection facility is being set up near Walker Springs Road to handle arrests made in Knox County.

This is the most extensive attempt to serve outstanding warrants conducted by the LCSO in at least seven years, Guider said. A similar operation seven years ago nabbed about 200 of the 500 fugitives sought. "From time to time, we have to whittle down the number of outstanding warrants," Guider said.

Depending on how successful the operation is, the LCSO may have to house some of the defendants in a neighboring county jail.

"It may be difficult to house this many prisoners," Guider said.

"We will try to process them and bond them out as quickly as possible," he added.

Blount joins huge suspect roundup: Deputies seek 560 with outstanding warrants

If "Operation Apprehension" is a success, Loudon County authorities hope to nab hundreds of individuals with outstanding warrants in seven counties, including Blount.

Loudon County Sheriff Tim W. Guider announced the operation Thursday in Lenoir City, saying his office had tracked down addresses for 560 people with outstanding warrants in Loudon, Anderson, Blount, Knox, Monroe, McMinn and Roane counties.

His officers, teamed with officers from the other six counties, were out for 12 hours starting Thursday and going into the early hours of today, trying to track down and arrest them.

The last time the Loudon County Sheriff's Office conducted an operation of this size was seven years ago, Guider said.

"Over a period of time, all sheriff's departments amass a rather large amount of outstanding warrants," he said, explaining officials try to arrest the individuals when the warrants are first issued. "But for a number of reasons, those subjects are not captured."

Of the outstanding warrants, the vast majority (317) are from Loudon County, but a good number were suspected to be in Blount (49), Knox (78), Monroe (45) and Roane (41) counties.

"As you know, these individuals will cross boundary lines and county lines and one day they may be in Knox County, another day in Blount, another day in Loudon," he said.

The participating agencies were out for 12 hours starting at 4 p.m. Thursday, "and we hope we will be quite successful," Guider said. "Granted, if we have half of (the 560), we'll be happy."

Along with about five deputies, the Blount County Sheriff's Office Mobile Command Center was on the scene to aid in coordinating the efforts, and a Blount County paddy wagon was in use at a drop-off point in Knoxville.

"We're going to have that stationed in Knoxville in a central location in case somebody needs to drop off (an arrested suspect) over there," Blount County Sheriff's Lt. Jeff Clark said Thursday while standing in front of the command center. "And what the (centralized paddy wagon) does is enable an officer to drop off (a suspect), get back out there and look for some other folks, instead of driving all the way back to the Loudon County Jail."

Depending on how successful the warrant roundup is, Guider said things might get tight in the Loudon County Jail.

"It's going to be difficult to house all these individuals as we get them in," he said. "If they are bondable (they will) bond them out as quickly as possible.

"But if not, we're going to ask for some assistance from ... neighboring counties to house them," he said. "We certainly want to thank our neighboring counties for helping us."

As of 9 p.m. Thursday -- with seven hours left -- about 30 outstanding warrants had been served in the operation.

Loudon County attempts to serve 560 outstanding warrants

LENOIR CITY (WATE) -- More than 100 officers from seven East Tennessee counties set out on a 12 hour manhunt Thursday afternoon. They called it "Operation Apprehension."

The Loudon County Sheriff's Office, with a lot of outside help, went after 560 people with outstanding warrants, everything from robbery and assault to probation violations and failure to pay child support. It took several months to track down the most up-to-date addresses for all of the suspects.

"The last time we conducted such an operation of this magnitude was about seven years ago, which we felt was very successful," said Sheriff Tim Guider. 

More than halfway through the search, 50 people had already been nabbed.