Looking Back On 2022
Although county officials meet regularly with the Board of County Commissioners, after the beginning of each year, I try to provide the Board with a summary of Sheriff's Office activities the previous year. I recently had the opportunity to do just that, but also want to share with you all, as well.
While we saw a 15% decrease in burglaries in 2022 compared to 2021, we continue to strongly urge residents to take measures to help reduce the likelihood of theft and increase the likelihood that stolen property will be recovered.
Some reminders include removing keys from vehicles including ATV's and UTV's when you're not driving them, leave home and yard exterior lights on at night, remove valuables from your vehicle, lock your vehicle, and be vigilant against providing personal information to those calling on the phone.
I also encourage everyone to document their valuable property, which can be done easily by taking a picture of your vehicle, valuable jewelry and firearms (with serial numbers). There has been greater success in recovering stolen property when we are able to send out pictures to law enforcement across the Tri-State region, who we work with and share crime information with on an almost daily basis. The more eyes watching for the stolen property as law enforcement conducts traffic stops, executes search warrants and responds to calls involving known criminals, the better the odds it will be recovered.
Our communications center, which provides services for all law enforcement, fire departments and ambulance services in the county kept busy in 2022, handling 56,025 non-emergency calls, 7,793 emergency 911 calls and 292,058 radio transmissions (228,064 - law enforcement, 32,987 - ambulance services, 31,007 - fire departments).
Because our deputies respond to calls ranging from child abuse and other violent crimes to false alarms and cattle blocking the roadway, not every response requires a report be generated. However, in 2022, they filed 1,336 reports.
In the jail, our Corrections Deputies processed 1,385 inmates into the county jail. The majority of those booked in, 81%, were men and just over 56% of the local inmates booked into the jail were arrests made by the Sheriff's Office.
As many of you are aware, Cherokee County has been housing inmates for other jurisdictions for the past 18 years. In 2022, those agreements brought in $479,280.00 ($77,655.00 more than 2021), which is deposited in the County General Fund.
As always, it's an honor to serve this community and we at the Sheriff's Office are looking forward to what's in store in 2023!
Stay safe and God Bless,
Sheriff David Groves