King County deputies hit the streets to bust wanted criminals, but money-saving bureaucrats in OTHER TOWNS are ordering they free the crooks.

KIRO Team 7 Investigators found it's happening in thousands of cases of misdemeanor domestic assault, drunk driving, theft, animal cruelty and other crimes.

KIRO Team 7 Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne exposes why many criminals with outstanding misdemeanor warrants don't have to worry about going to jail.

When a King County deputy makes a stop, it's standard procedure to run what's called a warrants check. If the computer spits out a "hit", here comes the arrest. Right? Not so fast.

KIRO Team 7 Investigators have discovered a growing number of cities and counties (outside of King County's jurisdiction) don't want to pay for the cost of jail time or transportation of a criminal with a misdemeanor warrant. Instead, they routinely tell the deputy to let the criminal go right there on the spot.

Kelly Scales isn't exactly a dangerous fugitive. She earned a criminal mischief warrant in Renton for allegedly throwing an empty beer can at a car. A municipal court judge ordered her arrested.

Months later, Scales bumped into a pair of King County Sheriff's deputies. They found her name in this statewide misdemeanor warrants database.

Scales says "They arrested me and put me back in the car. I sat there a while. They called Renton. I heard Renton say, 'Oh, just cut her loose'. (That’s) exactly what they said. ‘Just cut her loose’. Like six times and so they cut me loose."

Despite the judges order, The City of Renton told King County deputies to release Scales, deciding it was too expensive or time-consuming to come get her.

Renton Police Spokesperson Penny Bartley defends the decision saying, “It's the business we're in. We have to make the best use of resources we have.”

What happens in Renton is actually widespread.

KIRO Team 7 Investigators analyzed all 145,000 active misdemeanor warrants statewide. We found only 18 percent of them allow officers to actually make unconditional arrests.

King County deputies can now see on computer screens in the field, notes from cities and counties that say “don’t” make an arrest if the criminal crossed from our jurisdiction to yours.

Deputies, like Steve Cox, hate it when they encounter known criminals with misdemeanor warrants from adjoining towns, then have to let them go.

He says “I'm certainly not crazy about it. If somebody’s got a warrant, I'd be nice to have the ability to take them off the street before he has an opportunity to cause a problem for us later in the shift.”

If you have a misdemeanor warrant issued from King County, you are going to jail. That's policy.

However, if you have a misdemeanor warrant issued from Tacoma or Pierce County, police usually won't cross the county line to get you. They won't come even if you're already in handcuffs in the back seat of King County patrol car just a few miles away.

Pierce County says there isn't room in the jail for petty criminals and it's too expensive to pay the King County jail booking fee.

A computer analysis of “restricted” misdemeanor warrants shows not all "petty crime" is so petty. Pierce County, Tacoma, and Lakewood police rarely leave the county to enforce warrants for some violence offenses, including most domestic assault cases.

Karen Toutfest helps run the YWCA's battered women's shelter. She says failing to hold abusers accountable leaves her clients vulnerable, again: “Domestic violence is a long term pattern of behavior and the end result is always the potential for death.”

We found 2301 misdemeanor DV assault warrants stamped "Pierce County pickup Only". That's nearly all of them. Most other jurisdictions will go statewide to collect these guys, even if they have geographic restrictions on lesser misdemeanors. Toutfest reacted to our findings saying

“That accountability isn't there. It kind of reinforces the fact that they are the ones in control, with the power, and can pretty much do whatever they want. That makes it more dangerous for the victims.”

The Pierce County Sheriff's Office says it would love to arrest everyone, but the reality is: they have to prioritize based on the seriousness of the crime. Several domestic violence advocacy groups we talked with say they will press for that to change.