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Who could have read or heard about the death of Fort Myers police officer Andrew Widman and not thought, “Somebody ought to do something.”

Well, somebody is doing something.

Robert Wheeler, assistant general counsel to Gov. Charlie Crist, reports that Lee County will institute a pilot program to prevent tragedies like the murder of Officer Widman from recurring.

That tragedy happened on July 18, when Widman was shot by Abel Arango, a convicted felon with a warrant out for his arrest.

Arango had been in court on June 16 for his arraignment on drug charges. At the time, he had an active arrest warrant on a probation violation. The warrant stipulated that if found, Arango should be held without bond, but the judge didn’t know about it.

Arango walked out of court a free man, left to shoot Widman in a downtown Fort Myers confrontation. Arango was subsequently killed by other officers.

“Neither the trial court, nor the clerk’s office, nor the prosecutor ran a warrant check for Mr. Arango on the Judicial Information System or the FCIC (Florida Crime Information Center) database that would have revealed Mr. Arango’s outstanding warrant.

“Apparently, warrant checks are not routinely run at time of arraignment,” Wheeler wrote as a result of an inquiry into Widman’s death.

The inquiry was requested by the governor through his chief of staff, Eric Eikenberg.

Wheeler’s Aug. 19 letter says the entities that had a hand in Arango’s last trip through the court system -- court administration, law enforcement, the Department of Corrections and prosecutors -- have met, identified the problem and are moving toward a “systemic” solution.

“The state court administrator has researched the feasibility of routinely running a warrant check at the time of arraignment and providing this information to the judge and the parties.

“To this end, Lee County has contracted with a provider to begin a program that will allow for the background data of those charged to be available at arraignment,” Wheeler says.

“If successful, the governor’s office will encourage all local governments to employ this program and work with the leaders of the Legislature during the upcoming legislative session to implement this program statewide.”

In the days after Widman’s death, court officials pronounced the idea of checking the background data of all defendants at arraignment time-consuming and cost-prohibitive, considering hundreds of arraignments may occur on a given day.

Wheeler’s reference to a “provider” suggests technology may be available to overcome that.

If that turns out not to be the case, some other solution still must be sought.

Perhaps a system can be designed to call extra attention to the relative handful of suspects wanted on “no bond” warrants, those deemed too much a threat to release once captured?

Whatever happens, Wheeler says the governor will remain involved.

“Gov. Crist will continue to take an active role by monitoring the progress and has asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to assist in any way it can,” Wheeler concludes.

E-mail Brent Batten at bebatten@naplesnews.com