Criminals wary
Night court helps police In comic books, Batman always went after crooks at night – when they thought they were safe. While he doesn’t wear a batsuit, one Fayette County Magisterial District Judge has taken a similar tact as the caped crusader and made the night his business hours – and now local lawbreakers can’t assume that they’re safe just because it’s dark.
“Those that have broken the law believe that we close down shop at four, but that’s no longer true,” said Magisterial District Judge Ron Haggerty of the extended office hours of a new evening program.
The night court, held every few weeks at Haggerty’s Arch Street office in Connellsville, makes life easier on police by giving them the opportunity to bring people in after regular hours.
The best part is that it enables law enforcement to focus solely on those who they have not been able to apprehend or others who have not paid their fines or responded to letters requiring them to contact the office in connection with an offense. Haggerty said the initiative has caught the violators off guard.
“They never expect an officer or constable to show up after four o’clock,” he said. “They believe that if they have avoided being apprehended during the daylight hours they are good for the rest of the day. Not anymore.”
Haggerty, a former officer with the Connellsville Police Department and a member of the Fayette County Drug Task Force, was only elected last year and we’re pleased to see him take the initiative on the night court program. Many candidates running for magisterial district judge have talked about holding court sessions at night but Haggerty is the only one, to our knowledge, that has actually done it.
Haggerty deserves substantial credit for doing what he can to make law enforcement more effective. Perhaps the success of this program will lead to other magisterial judges taking on the idea. In one critical category, Haggerty feels the night program is already accomplishing his goal.
“We’re getting the bad guys off the street and making Connellsville a better place,” said Haggerty. And he didn’t even need a cape to do it – just later hours.