If you live in Florida and have any outstanding warrants, parking tickets, etc., you might want to evacuate now. 

According to the NY Times if you go to a shelter seeking refuge from Hurricane Irma and you have any unpaid debts to society, you will be arrested.

NY Times —Grady Judd, the sheriff in Polk County, announced in a series of messages on Twitter.

“If you go to a shelter for Irma and you have a warrant, we’ll gladly escort you to the safe and secure shelter called the Polk County Jail.”

The sheriff said law enforcement officers would be posted at shelters to check IDs.

“We cannot and we will not have innocent children in a shelter with sexual offenders & predators. If you have a warrant, turn yourself in to the jail — it’s a secure shelter.”

The sheriff’s office made the announcements as residents of Florida on Wednesday stocked up or made preparations to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Irma, which on Wednesday battered the northeast Caribbean and was moving on to the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

Polk County, in Central Florida, has a population of more than 600,000 people. There are 47 public shelters in the county, but they have not yet been opened to accept hurricane evacuees.

The practices of law enforcement officials and immigration authorities during life-threatening storms have frequently come under scrutiny, as happened during Hurricane Harvey in Texas and in 2012 during Hurricane Isaac in Louisiana.

Thoughts?