HANCOCK COUNTY — A few weeks into the new year, officials with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department (HCSD) shared run statistics from 2023 and compared them with numbers from 2022 as well as from 2021.
Captain Robert Harris, public information officer for the Sheriff’s office, said the statistic show 2023 was a busy year for the department, with huge numbers across the board starting with approximately 25,707 total patrol events.
The patrol event numbers from 2023 are up from 2022 when they had 23,956 patrol events, and they’re even higher than the ones recorded in 2021 when they had 24,138 events.
“I believe this is due to growth of new business, residents and commuters in Hancock County,” Harris said.
Sheriff’s officials are on record saying the creation of many large warehouse businesses on the west side of the county kept them moving in 2023 with numerous calls per day.
Growth throughout the county could explain why HCSD field arrests were also up with 730 field arrests in 2023. That’s several hundred more than in 2022 when there were only 521 field arrests compared with only 447 field arrests in 2021.
More growth means more vehicles on county roads, and that means the number of traffic stops in 2023 increased by over 1,400 to 5,061 compared to 2022 numbers when there were only 3,916 traffic stops and 3,016 traffic stops in 2021.
Sheriff’s officials also spend time each year handling situations that end up being civil events. In 2023, they had 2,137 civil runs compared with 1,987 civil runs in 2022. There were 1,803 in 2021.
When it came to incident reports, case reports to investigations, numbers were up there as well. There were 1,466 reports in 2023, up nearly 100 from 2022 when there were 1,351 reports to investigations. Still, the highest incidents for reports to investigation occurred in 2021 when there where 1,515.
The HCSD also keeps track of happenings at the Hancock County Jail. Harris noted jail bookings were also up, but just slightly in 2023. Last year, 2,192 inmates were booked into the new jail. That number is up by only 20 inmates compared to 2022 numbers when 2,172 inmates were booked into the jail. Both years though are way up from 2021 when the new jail wasn’t yet open and only 1,246 people were taken into custody.
Jail release numbers show while many are taken into custody, there are also high turnover numbers. The jail released 2,160 inmates in 2023, up slightly from 2022 when they released 2,090 inmates. Release could include transferring inmates to the Indiana Department of Corrections; another county jail, probation or outright release. Jail releases were 1,197 in 2021.
While the report numbers are up pretty much across the board for Sheriff’s officials, Harris noted the force is doing as best it can to keep up with the higher demands for public service and officials feel like the volume of work will continue to increase in the coming years.
“I feel we will continue to see increased numbers as the county grows,” Harris said.
With the growth, officials at the Sheriff’s office note they will do all they can to continue to patrol and monitor the county as best they can, but with so much growth they’re going to have to hire more deputies both for patrol and at the jail.
“We would still like to add more deputies on the streets and more employees to expand programs,” Harris said.
