MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
As they ripped out a toilet and sink and cut a hole in the wall, the 10 inmates escaping a New Orleans jail left a message - too easy LOL - laugh out loud. They also put a spelling error in there. Well, they left that message when they escaped last Friday. As of today, 5 of the 10 have been apprehended, but the manhunt for the others is still on. Well, we wanted to talk through what an operation of this scale might look like with Donald Lane. He's a former Secret Service agent who spent time on a fugitive apprehension task force. Donald Lane, welcome.
DONALD LANE: Great to be here. Thanks for having me.
KELLY: Glad to have you with us. Is there a checklist for something like this? Just walk me through the first few steps when a jailbreak like this happens.
LANE: Sure. You know, when a jailbreak happens, the first thing you want to do, obviously, is identify who the individuals are that have escaped and if there's any video that's available to show where they escaped from, which in this case, they do. You can see them, some of them running across, you know, an interstate highway, for instance. So that gives you an idea of - perhaps in the direction that they may be traveling. So identifying...
KELLY: What they were wearing, where they were headed, yeah.
LANE: Right. You want to make sure that you begin to alert all law enforcement in the area. So, you know, identification, notification, and then you want to set up a perimeter as quickly as you can. Now, in this case, there was such a tremendous delay from the time that the escape actually occurred until the time it became known, you know, it's going to be difficult to put up a perimeter considering how far they may have gotten.
KELLY: It was - what? - like, eight hours that it took jail staff to discover the escape.
LANE: Correct.
KELLY: Which is a lot of running time if you're trying to catch people who are not interested in being caught.
LANE: It's a lifetime for a fugitive, yes.
KELLY: You mentioned letting all the relevant law enforcement in the area know. In an operation like this, I've got to think you would have local police involved, state police, U.S. Marshals, FBI. Who takes charge?
LANE: Typically, the agency that leads this would be the one where the escape occurred - in this case, the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office. But the reality of the situation is that most of the folks in law enforcement are going to take their cues from the U.S. Marshals' fugitive apprehension team. You know, that's what they do day in and day out. They're experts at hunting down fugitives. And so, you know, you would rely heavily on them at the federal level.
KELLY: Some of the escapees, some of the fugitives I mentioned, have been apprehended. Louisiana State Police Superintendent Colonel Robert Hodges said that was with the public's help. Public tips - how helpful are they, typically, when you're looking for a needle, or in this case 10 needles, in a haystack?
LANE: The public tips become vital. They're not just important, they're vital. You know, fugitives are going to stay away from any law enforcement as best they possibly can. So, you know, you want the public to have their eyes open, their ears open, if they see anything out of the ordinary. And I think that's why you've seen some success which has involved public notification.
KELLY: Given all the tools at law enforcement's disposal, does it surprise you at all that here we are coming up on not quite a week out, but coming up on it, and this is where we are?
LANE: It doesn't. It doesn't. This a large amount of folks, you know, that escaped at one time. You know, they've captured some so far. But my belief is that these folks probably did not go far. I believe that they're going to stick to the areas they know best within the city of New Orleans. And it wouldn't surprise me that the remainder of these guys are holed up somewhere with either a relative or other known criminal associates, and they're being actively hidden and fed and housed. And, you know, then it becomes a waiting game. I do believe in time they'll all be apprehended, but these things sometimes take time.
KELLY: Former Secret Service agent Donald Lane, talking us through the manhunt underway in New Orleans. Donald Lane, thank you.
LANE: You bet. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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