Sept. 23, 2026

Ep. 86 – Inside the Unpredictable World of Fugitive Apprehension: Tristin Kilgallon, Former Philly Warrant Unit Investigator

Show Notes

Ep. 86 - Tristin Kilgallon, a former warrant investigator with the Philly Warrant Unit joins me for a no-holds-barred look at the world of fugitive apprehension in one of the country’s toughest cities.

Our conversation is based on Tristin’s book Philly Warrant Unit which he co-authored with his partner and lifelong friend Sgt. Mark Fusetti. They were part of a three-man team working “last out” – an 11:00 pm to 7:00 am shift. They were assigned priority cases like probation detainers and judge-only bench warrants but also had the freedom to choose where in the city they wanted to work and which cases to pursue.

One of those areas was Kensington, one of Philly’s most famous and infamous neighborhoods. It was the setting for the Rocky movies as well as a real-life zombie land of the drug addicted, an area rife not only with drugs but also prostitution and violence.

The people Tristin and his partners encountered ranged from dangerous criminals to those whose lives had been destroyed by addiction. Their stories can be funny and bizarre, but more often than not, incredibly sad. We talk about the revolving door of the legal system and what it’s like to repeatedly arrest the same people, only to see them back on the street.

We also get into tactics. When you’re doing some of the most dangerous work in law enforcement, tactics – as those of you listening know - can mean the difference between life and death. Tristin takes us inside the process of clearing a house, searching for suspects and the art of breaching. And we cover the unique – and I mean unique – places fugitives found to hide including refrigerators, washing machines, storage bins and more.

After leaving the Warrant Unit, Tristin earned his law degree and went on to teach criminal justice at the university level for 15 years. That part of his career leads to another important conversation—one I also had in Ep. 80 with retired SFPD Deputy Chief Jim Dudley, host of Policing Matters: the influence of criminal justice professors and the anti-cop narrative many are teaching to the next generation.

The interview, like the book is a fascinating look inside a specialized unit that most people know very little about.

Thank you, Tristin!

Buy the book on Amazon!

Check out the Facebook page for the book:

https://www.facebook.com/PhillyWarrantUnit

Connect with Tristin:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tristin-kilgallon-2a99a23b8/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tristinkilgallon/

X:@tmkilgallon https://x.com/tmkilgallon

Connect with Sgt. Mark Fusetti co-author on X:

@MarkFusetti X

In Memoriam: