20 individuals were arrested, 45 arrest warrants were executed and a total of 61 outstanding charges were cleared by the Airdrie RCMP when a "Warrant Roundup" was held last weekend.

Between March 14th and 17th, Airdrie RCMP was involved in the project which focused on arrest warrants for people living in Airdrie and Rocky View County.  RCMP Cst. Dan Martin says several units were involved in making the project run seamlessly.

"The Airdrie Crime Reduction Unit (CRU) organized the roundup and they utilized members from the General Investigations Section, Domestic Violence Unit as well as General Duty members, a Crime Analyst, some Watch Clerks and Municipal Support Workers.  It was quite a large undertaking with a little bit of background work, support workers pulling warrants and figuring out exactly who was going to be targeted."

The RCMP arrested a range of offenders, including some prolific property crime offenders, domestic violence offenders, people active in identity theft and credit card theft, and some repeat traffic offenders.  Most of the offenders who were arrested had warrants for failing to appear in court and failing to comply with court-imposed conditions on top of the original crimes they were charged for.  Several of them also had additional warrants from Calgary, Edmonton, Didsbury, Brooks, and Chestermere.

"Obviously," says Martin, "We were able to get new court dates for several of these fugitives and make them answer to the warrants that were outstanding."

Martin estimates there was approximately 25 RCMP personnel involved in the operation which he says was about two months in the making.  He says crime reduction is a top priority for the RCMP.

"We're definitely out working hard to try and find these offenders who have slipped through the cracks and possibly gone into hiding and this definitely plays into the priority of the RCMP."

In addition to the 20 individuals arrested, the 45 arrest warrants that were executed and the 61 charges that were cleared, the Airdrie RCMP was able to confirm multiple fugitives have either left the Airdrie area, moved out of the province or were deceased. 

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