In an effort to relieve overcrowding in California prisons, the state is looking to drop warrants for some parolees, amounting to what some critics are calling a "get out of jail free" card.

Members from the California Parole Apprehension Team descended on Oakland last week looking for some violent people. There used to be more parole agents on the streets looking for parole violators. But soon, those numbers will shrink.

KTVU News crew rode along as the team took three different parole violators into custody. Two sex offenders who the agents could see had violated their parole based on their GPS tracking units.

"His tracks show he was hanging out in neighborhoods close to schools where he was not supposed to be. The third individual had a record of gun violations and had absconded his parole a month and a half earlier," said parole supervisor Austin Uwakwe.

But the state is considering discharging 10,000 parolees at large from state parole supervision. Corrections officials say they will always pursue the 290 sex offenders, who require mandatory registration.

That would leave the non-violent, non-serious, non-sex offenders on the streets for now. But that will change too.

"For everyone who has committed some particularly heinous crime, there are others whose offenses were relatively mild. So then it becomes a question of what's the best use of state resources?" said California Department of Corrections Spokesman Jeffrey Callison.

Corrections officials are defending the change as a necessary part of the realignment of the California Prison System.

"There are new responsibilities for offenders going to the local level, which is often a more efficient way to deal with offenders with the lower level offenses," said Callison.

Some Bay Area law enforcement officials disagree with the move.

"It's irresponsible on the state's part to make such a decision that would have impact locally on our violent crime," said Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan.

He has concerns about the change, saying his city is already dealing with 254 parolee at large warrants.

"The majority of our either victims that have been involved in violent crime or suspects are either on probation or parole or sometimes both. So you're adding to that population by basically letting them wipe their slate clean," said Jordan.

Soon, low level parolees could be released in the first phase of this project. KTVU obtained an internal Department of Corrections memo that shows in the second and third phases, the parole sentences of some serious criminals, then violent criminals, will also be reviewed.

"By just removing the warrant and not holding them accountable, it sends the message that if you are under the state supervision, nothing's going to happen to you," said Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley, who opposes the plan.

"They went to state prison because of their crimes or because of their criminal backgrounds. And to simply ignore that, they have ignored all the rules. [It] doesn't make sense," said O'Malley.

State Senator Mark Leno says this is about fighting crime in a more cost effective way.

"Wouldn't it make sense if they are a low-level offender of many years ago, they've had a clean record all of these many years, that we get them off our list so that we can really focus on those who could be a risk to public safety?" said Leno.

Public safety is indeed what hangs in the balance.