| BY DALE ELLIS
Managing Editor 18 Jan 2003
The White County Sheriff's Department has continued to make
progress in its war against crime, according to Sheriff Pat Garrett, as he pointed out
statistics showing overall decreases in criminal activity and cases cleared.
According to statistics provided by the sheriff's
department, property crimes, such as auto thefts and stolen property values have decreased
slightly over last year. However, burglaries rose slightly in 2002 over the statistics
from 2001, with 206 versus 201. Theft of property rose from 419 to 426, although both were
below the total of 463 reported in 2000.
Recovered property value dropped from $431, 591 in 2001 to
$362,570 in 2002. Both totals were below the $624,395 worth of property recovered in 2000.
"The recovered property value is down," Garrett
said, "partly because we had a lot of stuff wind up out of state and also some people
couldn't positively identify their property."
Garrett pointed out that it is the job of his investigators
to match stolen property up with the property owners and to get that property back to the
rightful owners.
"I've made some changes in CID that I hope will
stimulate that recovery rate," Garrett said.
Primarily, Garrett said that he has place Lieutenant Jimmy
Ervin over the Criminal Investigation Division, to replace Captain Gary Morgan, who
retired recently.
The department served more warrants in 2002 than it did in
either of the previous two years, the statistics showed, with 3,380 warrants served in
2002, versus 2,971 in 2001 and 2,595 in 2000. Calls for service dropped in 2002, to 10,162
from 11,601 in 2001, although those calls were still significantly up over the 2000 total
of 7,266. Officers drove more miles and worked more hours in 2002 as well.
Citations were up markedly over previous years, with 1,768
tickets written in 2002 over 1,124 in 2001 and 243 in 2000. Drug and DWI arrests were down
in 2002, with 64 compared to 82 in 2001. That total was up well over the 41 written in
2000.
Fines and fees collected throughout the county were up
dramatically over past years as well. In 2002, the county collected $968,241 in fines and
fees overall, which was well over the 2001 total of $815,183 and the 2000 total of
$662,247.
"I guess where you could say the rubber meets the road
is the fines and fees collected by this county," Garrett said. "I was shooting
for $1 million and I didn't miss it by much."
Statistics compiled by Sergeant Clayton Edwards, one of the
county's drug officers, meth labs confiscated by the sheriff's department in 2002 totaled
46, with 53 methamphetamine possession arrests and 43 arrests resulting from labs.
Also, Edwards said, 18 arrests resulted from possession of
marijuana and five arrests were made for manufacture of marijuana. In all, 119 felony
arrests were made in drug related cases in 1992.
Edwards said that typically, in years past, the sheriff's
department numbers for drug cases were lumped in with the Central Arkansas Drug Task
Force's numbers, but that this year that was not the case. Edwards did not have statistics
available from previous years for the sheriff's department totals, but Garrett said that
the department has steadily made gains in its attempts to stem the tide of criminal
activity.
"I'm very pleased with my department's increase,"
Garrett said. "It's been a good year and we hope to continue doing just what we've
been doing."
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