San Diego

San Diego County is considering the use of collection agencies and private investigators to track down individuals named in 600,000 outstanding warrants, assistant county administrator David Janssen said Tuesday.

More than half the warrants issued each month are cleared within six months, allowing the county to collect fines associated with the warrants, Janssen said. However, the number of outstanding warrants is growing by about 2,000 each month, and the county is unable to collect the associated fines.

Many of the outstanding warrants, which for the most part are linked to vehicle violations, involve repeat offenders, Janssen said.

At present, 81,000 people have accumulated two to four warrants, 12,000 have five to nine warrants outstanding, 1,100 have 10 to 14 warrants outstanding and 163 have 15 to 19 outstanding warrants. An estimated 100 people have more than 20 warrants outstanding.