Mt. Vernon Register-News

Local

January 25, 2013

Sheriff gives end-of-year report

By RORYE O’CONNOR rorye.oconnor@register-news.com

MT. VERNON — — Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies reported to 14,763 emergencies in 2012.

According to Jefferson County Sheriff Roger Mulch’s end-of-year report, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office dispatch division received 26,379 calls into the telecommunications center, 17,150 of which were logged as 911 emergency calls.

Detectives and deputies investigated 11 criminal sexual assaults, 57 aggravated assault/battery cases, 109 burglaries, 173 thefts, 18 motor vehicle thefts and seven arsons. These make up six of the eight major crime index offenses tracked by the Illinois Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

In the course of the sheriff’s office’s investigations, drug investigations included two methamphetamine labs being discovered and dismantled, two prescription drug cases, two synthetic drug cases, 14 cannabis cases, 19 drug equipment/paraphernalia violations and 28 controlled substance violations.

“The methamphetamine epidemic in Jefferson County has greatly reduced since our epidemic in 2004 and continues in this downward trend,” information from Mulch’s report states. “Currently the drug of choice within our rural setting is cannabis. The drug of choice within the city limits of Mt. Vernon is crack cocaine.”

Deputies investigated an additional 589 reports directly related to crime, information states, including 72 driving under the influence arrests made, four vehicles seized and pending court cases, 344 arrest warrants served, a total of 726 arrests made, 64 cases of domestic battery investigated, 728 traffic citations issued and 470 traffic accidents investigated.

The JCSO generated a total of $3,589,720 in revenue in 2012, with $3.37 million from out-of-county detainee housing, and $211,814 in local dollars.

More than 6,000 people were booked into the Justice Center in 2012, with 3,649 of those being out-of-county detainees from the US Marshals Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Cook County.

Throughout 2012, 1,900 civil papers were served, generating $31,324 for the Jefferson County General Corporate fund, information from Mulch’s report states. In addition, 50 sheriff’s sales were conducted, generating $30,000.

Deputies drove 302,241 miles in 2012, with the corrections division driving 385,330 miles to provide prisoner transports, for a total of 687,571 miles driven.

Training was conducted within the sheriff’s office on topics such as annual firearms qualifications, use of force, taser, less than lethal shotgun (bean bag) and pepper spray.

The Joint Narcotics Division, a partnership between the JCSO and the Mt. Vernon Police Department, investigated 55 cannabis cases, 13 crack cocaine cases, six methamphetamine cases, 12 meth labs, nine heroin cases, and 21 other drug-related cases. They also worked on 15 K2/bath salts cases and eight prescription medication cases. Ten drug paraphernalia charges occurred in the 2012 fiscal year as a result of their work.

The division seized $32,048, four vehicles and one television.

JCSO also partners with the MVPD on the High Risk Team, who completed 11 missions in 2012, including eight drug search warrants, two surveillance missions, one arrest and one barricaded suspect incident. Since the inception of the HRT in 1996, they have carried out 302 missions.

The sheriff’s office was awarded $20,000 in grant funding in 2012, for narrow banding radio equipment. The grant funding was awarded through the Illinois Public Risk Fund.

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TESA GLASS/REGISTER-NEWS
Mt. Vernon Police blocked a portion of North Ninth Street Wednesday morning about 11 a.m. after reports the brick facade of the apartment building at the corner of Ninth and Maple streets was falling to the ground. The bricks took out cable lines, awnings and were landing on the street.