There are almost 18,000 outstanding warrants and unpaid fines of more than $10 million, police have revealed.

They urged the public to take advantage of a process that allows those with outstanding warrants for traffic offences to walk in to a station and resolve the matter rather than risk being arrested.

The backlog of legal documents was a “longstanding” problem and putting a strain on the Bermuda Police Service and criminal justice system, said Acting Detective Superintendent Jason Smith.

He revealed that the number of outstanding warrants stood at 17,971 and the value of unpaid fines was $10.48 million.

Mr Smith said: “In the past seven days, the BPS made 57 arrests, out of which 24 were for warrants. This means that approximately four out of every ten arrests during that period were warrant related.

“In one instance an individual arrested on Friday, August 21, was found to have five outstanding warrants.”

The detective was providing an update on the new process, which allows people with outstanding traffic warrants to attend Hamilton Police Station on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday, between 8am and 8.45am, to have their matters resolved on the same day.

Mr Smith confirmed the walk-in provision was applicable to traffic warrants only and not criminal warrants.

He said: “In the old system, those individuals who had warrants would have been arrested, processed through the police custody suite, held pending their court appearance and then subsequently returned to the police station.

“That process required significant police and custody resources.”

The BPS said they were receiving five to ten voluntary walk-ins each day since the introduction of the new approach in June, while 530 arrests for warrants had been made this year.

Mr Smith said: “This warrant walk-in is intended to improve the efficiency of the warrant process, while ensuring that outstanding matters continue to be addressed for the appropriate judicial process.”

He added: “As an organisation we recognise the significance of this.

“We are talking about over $10 million in outstanding fines and almost 18,000 warrants that are outstanding, so in a collaboration with the senior magistrate we are putting forward this initiative that hopefully will encourage those in our community who have warrants — they will know. We are encouraging those persons to please come forward.”

Asked why someone would want to hand themselves in and receive what could be a large fine, Mr Smith cited two recent examples.

He explained: “One instance that came to our attention was a young man who had just started a job.

“On his way to work, he was arrested for a warrant.

“He unfortunately had to be detained because it was outside a particular period of time for the next court appearance on the next day.

“He had this matter dealt with before the courts and then he showed up at work, where his employer fired him.

“The other example is something we see often, particularly on holiday weekend periods. Labour Day is coming up and it's on a Monday.

“What we see a lot of times, over those long-holiday periods, is that people are stopped by the police. That could be at a roadside sobriety checkpoint.

“Someone just might be caught up in that type of net and then they are detained over the weekend.

“That is a significant loss to that individual. Sometimes they will call a lawyer to try and get them out but that's an additional cost.

“Through our partnership we are making this available, so we can hopefully provide some assistance, so those individuals can get their matters dealt with and not face the unfortunate consequence of having to be detained overnight or over the weekend.”

Mr Smith said: “There's always an opportunity if you encounter the police and you have an outstanding warrant you will face some unfortunate circumstances. But the walk-in warrant process, this is a great initiative.

“We are saying to the community, ‘as your police service we are here to support you but these matters are not going to go away’.

“We are encouraging community members to come out Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, so you can have your court matters resolved and be free to walk around in society.”