SAN ANTONIO – The Bexar County Sheriff's Office has taken steps recently to address the county's massive misdemeanor backlog after the office's previous administration took resources away from its Fugitive Apprehension Unit.
During a recent BCSO ride-along, there were 26,382 active warrants in Bexar County.
More than 73 percent of the warrants, roughly 19,400, are for misdemeanor criminal offenses, according to figures provided this month by county officials.
The FAUÂ is made up of pairings of deputies and a sergeant who conduct extensive background research on fugitives, then attempt to track them down and arrest them.
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 As KSAT's cameras captured during ride-alongs in May and June, it's a unit that is strikingly efficient.
Some deputies were removed from FAUÂ and reassigned to other areas of need in recent years, cutting its manpower in half, according to a BCSO lieutenant who now oversees the unit.
The decision was made in recent months to restore those cuts.
Additionally, on select days the unit now targets offenders with outstanding misdemeanor warrants.
"You never know what you are going to get when you knock on doors, so you just got to be alert," said one deputy after he and his partner arrested a man and his girlfriend on separate warrants.
Unlike a felony warrant, which allows deputies to gain access to a suspect inside a residence by force if necessary, a misdemeanor warrant requires them to rely more on negotiating skills to convince a wanted person to be taken into custody.
Although the unit was targeting suspects with misdemeanor warrants on nights KSAT rode along, deputies repeatedly came in contact with people with criminal histories that included felony charges.
"Obviously want to make sure me and my partner get home safely," said a deputy while driving to the home of a wanted suspect.
"It takes a lot of manpower. There's not one data source where you can type in someone's name and they are still alive and they live here," said Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood, describing the challenges faced by the unit.
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While pointing out that some warrants have been active since World War II, LaHood said he would like the county to create a way to clear out the ones attached to people no longer alive.
LaHood also provided an interesting counter-argument to clearing out as many misdemeanor warrants as possible.
He said that three years ago, San Antonio police were able to arrest Christian Bautista on misdemeanor warrants while investigators uncovered enough evidence to charge him with the 2013 murder of Lauren Bump.
Bautista was sentenced to life in prison last year.
"The only reason law enforcement got to stop him and talk to him is there was a misdemeanor warrant still active," said LaHood.
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