Nashville’s Fugitive Safe Surrender Program proved to be an overwhelming success. A total of 561 persons peacefully and voluntarily surrendered themselves at Galilee Baptist Church between Wednesday morning and this evening.
Today saw the highest daily total of the four days, as 237 individuals walked into the church to address the outstanding charges against them.
“The logistics of turning Galilee Church into a fully functioning booking room and courthouse was a phenomenal undertaking,” Chief Ronal Serpas said. “This program could not have succeeded without the strong mutual trust and respect between law enforcement and Nashville’s clergy.”
Chief Serpas and United States Marshal Denny King, who brought the idea for the program to Nashville, thanked the Interdenominational Ministers Fellowship, a full partner in the Safe Surrender effort, which arranged for more than 100 smiling volunteers to help staff the program. Most of the volunteers worked each of the four days.
Chief Serpas and Marshal King also credited the following individuals with making Safe Surrender possible by providing crucial staffing:
“Nashville is the fifth city in the nation to host Fugitive Safe Surrender and put its program together faster than any other city,” Marshal King said. “After four long days, I am extremely pleased with the results. The 4,000th person from the five cities involved in this program surrendered in Nashville.”
The daily surrender tally was: Wednesday-94, Thursday-92, Friday-138, today-237. Of the 561 people surrendering, only seven percent (38 individuals) were arrested due to the seriousness of their charges. Twenty percent of the 561 (115 individuals) had outstanding felony matters.
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