Irma: Florida Sheriff says he will arrest anyone with a warrant if they enter an emergency shelter

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People with active warrants in one Florida county may want to reconsider heading to a shelter during Hurricane Irma.

“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 county's sheriff, Grady Judd, posted on Twitter.

He also wrote that sex offenders and sex predators would be barred from entering the shelters.

Officers will be checking IDs at every shelter, he said.

Since officers don't have a way of seeing what crime the warrant is for, it’s possible those with non-violent misdemeanor offenses could be taken into custody, said Carrie Horstman, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office.

“Officers are legally obligated to take a person into custody if they have a warrant,” she told the Orlando Sentinel.

In preparation for Irma, fugitives should turn themselves into the jail because “it’s a secure location,” she added.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida slammed Mr Judd for issuing the directive, saying he should “focus on preparing for Irma, not burnishing your Joe Arpaio-style ‘tough cop’ credentials with irresponsible tweets.”

Mr Arpaio, a former sheriff in Arizona, was found guilty of criminal contempt in July for defying a court order to stop detaining immigrants based solely on the suspicion that they were in the country illegally. He was pardoned by Donald Trump last month.

The ACLU said that most people with outstanding warrants are dealing with low-level and nonviolent offences and pose no threat to others in a shelter.

Mr Judd’s comments “send the message that these individuals must choose between facing a natural disaster without aid and shelter or going to jail over things like unpaid traffic tickets,” the organisation said in a statement.

Irma, a category five “major” hurricane according to US authorities, is likely to make landfall somewhere in Florida over the weekend.

The storm has already tore through the Caribbean, leaving a path of death and destruction in its wake.