Pa.’s ‘Most Wanted’: How do Pennsylvania State Police decide who makes the list?

Five are wanted for killing or trying to kill someone.

One, a suspected rapist, police have been trying to apprehend since 1998.

Police say they’ve committed crimes against people in the commonwealth’s biggest cities, as well as in small towns like Meadville or in suburban Chester County.

And now they are all on the latest “Ten Most Wanted” list, just released by the Pennsylvania State Police.

Ever wonder how the list comes together, how police decide which 10 fugitives out of hundreds merit a spot on it? And how effective is it?

PennLive wondered too. Here’s what we learned.

The origins

It’s unclear exactly when the state police’s “most wanted” list first appeared.

Wanted posters, of course, go back to before the days of Jesse James and the Wild West.

According to History.com, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s first “Most Wanted” list was published on March 14, 1950, at the direction of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in reaction to the response from a 1949 news story about the “toughest guys” the FBI wanted to capture.

Statewide lists likely followed from that.

How it’s done

The state police list is updated every winter. The agency’s fugitive unit puts a call out to law enforcement agencies in Pennsylvania to nominate at-large criminal suspects they’ve identified as presenting an enhanced risk to the public.

Lt. Adam Reed said that usually nets scores of recommendations, all of which are then reviewed by leaders of PSP’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation in what becomes a de facto selection committee.

By definition, inclusion on the list is reserved for known suspects with active warrants charging them with crimes committed in Pennsylvania. From there, Reed said, winnowing down the list depends on more subjective factors, such as the severity of the offense and how great a threat to the public a subject represents.

Geography is considered in an attempt to make the list as relevant as possible to as many as possible, but there are no hard rules about having representation from every region of the state, Reed said.

In the new list, for example, there are two suspects from both the Hazleton and Erie areas, and none from south-central Pennsylvania.

Aside from the annual update, if there is an especially urgent or high-profile case, there are times when a suspect can be added immediately. A case in point was in September 2014, when Eric Frein was identified as the suspect who ambushed and killed a trooper outside the Blooming Grove barracks. Captured after a 48-day manhunt, Frein is currently on Pennsylvania’s death row.

Publication and distribution

Reed said the “Most Wanted” list is posted in every Pennsylvania State Police patrol room and state Department of Transportation facility, and is available to the public and news media through the department’s Website.

The main point, of course, is to deputize the general public in the search for these suspects.

Police nationwide, through the National Crime Information Center, would already be alerted to outstanding warrants should they come into contact with any of these fugitives. NCIC provides a computerized index of wanted persons.

“That means if an officer in California makes a traffic stop of one of these individuals, that hit on the warrant is going to be shown in their information,” Reed said.

But police believe adding eyeballs to these searches is always helpful.

Is it effective?

There are no hard statistics on this, or even how often the online list is viewed.

But the state police noted that three of the fugitives on their 2022 list were apprehended; one, a 17-year-old named Martavious Stout, turned himself in last May after going on the lam for seven months after charges were filed in a Meadville homicide.

(Stout’s information remained on PSP’s latest list as of Tuesday. Reed attributed that to an oversight.)

“We routinely receive tips on these individuals,” Reed said, and that is never a bad thing.

The most recent arrest from the list occurred Feb. 27, just six days after the 2023 list’s release, when Jordan Alexander Allen was apprehended in Wilkes-Barre.

Allen was wanted in connection with a New Year’s Day shooting outside a strip club in Dunmore. Police said he fired two shots, which prompted others in the area to start shooting. In the fight, a bullet struck a woman in the head, though it was not clear if the bullet that struck her came from Allen’s gun.

At the time of Allen’s arrest, the woman remained hospitalized, awaiting additional surgeries. Allen is being held in Lackawanna County Prison on aggravated assault charges in lieu of $650,000 bail.

What should you do if you have a tip?

Reed stressed all of these fugitives are considered dangerous. So the best thing for people who think they can help with a tip to do is simply call the PA Crime Stoppers tipline listed on the poster or, failing that, to contact their local police department.

The Crime Stoppers program, he noted, allows tipsters to remain anonymous, and maintains a privately funded reward program for tips that result in arrests.