Clare County Sheriff Provides 2024 Data Breakdown

By DIANNE ALWARD-BIERY

Cleaver Senior Staff Writer

HARRISON – At the January meeting of the Clare County Board of Commissioners, Sheriff John Wilson provided a thorough update and overview of the previous year’s activities in his department. That activity included some 38,668 incidents across the county, all of which required a response. He explained that the single homicide in the county happened in Franklin Township, and that the accused is being held by the Department of Corrections as a parolee, and the DOC will bring him back and forth for court.

 “It’s pretty general numbers … how I broke it down with what they are crime-wise – civil stuff, traffic crashes,” Wilson said. “I always look at the car-deer crashes, and we had 575 of them in 2024. And crashes without injury was 551 – so we actually had more car-deer crashes than regular crashes.”

He further explained that the fire incidents were for the whole county, but did not include rescues. Wilson said another category that he likes to see is the suspicious persons report.

“People called in 930 suspicious people in this county,” he said. “And we check every one of them out. That’s a deterrent there.” Wilson followed with an example of a person who had been reported going down Grant and looking in mailboxes.

The total file class listing ranged from a single incident in eight categories to as many as 9,000-plus in another. The total listing included:

1 homicide/murder; 1 kidnapping; 2 parental kidnapping; 94 criminal sexual conduct; 581 non-aggravated assaults; 44 aggravated/felonious assaults; 698 intimidation/stalking; 1 arson; 2 extortions; 231 burglary forced entry; 3 burglary without forced entry; 5 unlawful entry; 376 larceny (includes all types); 56 motor vehicle thefts; 5 forgery/counterfeiting; 184 fraud (includes all types); 3 embezzlement; 11 stolen property; 204 malicious destruction; 23 retail fraud; 116 violation of controlled substance; 1 peeping Tom; 1 obscenity; 217 family abuse/neglect; 3 liquor law violations; 3 drunkenness;

33 obstructing police; 809 warrant attempt/arrests; 102 weapon/explosive offenses; 16 disorderly conduct; 207 public peace; 31 hit/run crashes; 96 operate while intoxicated; 245 traffic violations; 50 health and safety; 3 civil rights; 264 trespassing; 2 invasion of privacy; 171 conservation; 1 vagrancy; 48 juvenile runaways; 1 miscellaneous criminal; 1 conspiracy; 95 juvenile delinquency; 1 walk away from home; 558 traffic crashes no injury; 94 traffic crashes with injury; 575 car-deer traffic crashes; 2 traffic crash with fatality, 70 private property crashes; 2 snowmobile crashes; 588 residential/business alarms; 411 fire incidents; 3 boating crashes; 3 accidents-all other;

121 civil incidents; 930 suspicious persons; 123 lost/found property; 13 drug overdoses; 135 suicide/attempt; 68 natural death incidents; 4 missing persons; 2,094 general assistance; 184 general non-criminal; 918 animal control incidents; 2,864 ambulance calls; 946 rescue unit calls; 733 Be On The Lookout (BOL); 29 BOL wrong way on highway; 20 COM911 (issue with 911); 38 Elder Justice Abuse Act; 187 general patrols; 8 homeless persons; 6 liquor inspections; 231 utility lines down; 8 school lockdowns; 555 motorist assists; 113 marine patrol/incidents; 40 marine stops; 126 ORV incidents; 154 ORV stops; 7 ORV crashes; 9,794 property checks; 1,101 civil process service; 487 road hazard; 91 repossessions; 169 salvage inspections; 4 STORM warnings; 81 TEST incidents; 3,016 traffic patrols; 6 TR-52 abandoned vehicle; 64 inmate transports, and 5,806 traffic stops.

Wilson said that next year the Michigan State Police incidents will go down due to the funding failure in Isabella County which resulted in the loss of the entire road patrol.

“The post in Mount Pleasant covers four counties, and now they’re directing their force all into Isabella County,” he said. “They are the main out-county, they handle everything out there. So, when you look through here and see what MSP handles, that will go down.”

Wilson additionally provided a breakdown of the calls by townships and areas, to include: Arthur 262; Franklin 464; Freeman 747; Frost 1,067; Garfield 1,322; Grant 2,116; Greenwood 1,088; Hamilton 1,803; Hatton 914; Hayes 5,370; Lincoln 3,864 (dedicated patrol through millage); Redding 436; Sheridan 368; Summerfield 366; Surrey 2,146; Winterfield 195; City of Clare 7,203; City of Harrison 6,930 (dedicated patrol through millage); Village of Farwell 1,388; Mid Michigan College 33; Osceola County Assist 29; other out-of-county calls 17; and Northern Michigan Mutual Aid Task Force callouts 5.

Wilson then described his department’s role in the Northern Michigan Mutual Aid Task Force.

“What that is, we’re with every county from, if you drew a line from U.S. 10 from coast to coast all the way to the Tip of the Mitt,” he said. “Every one of those counties puts somebody into this team. And that team is either SWAT tactical, search and rescue, or dive. So, if we have a drowning, we have resources from the northern part of Michigan.”

Wilson explained that the state police had established that team years ago, and that it provides a quick response.

A breakdown of calls by agencies included: Clare County Sheriff 26,379; Clare City Police 6,329; Michigan State Police 1,296; Department of Natural Resources 31; Animal Control 521; Emergency Management 9; Fire/Rescue 1,406; ambulance calls 2,497; Clare County Road Commission 17; and 183 listed as Other. Wilson said sometimes the call class written down when an incident is called in doesn’t get changed when further investigated and turns out to be something else. That can mean a less than true number, thus a margin of error can exist.

Wilson also explained that all the 2024 incidents that his department handled generated 2,774 case investigations for the Sheriff’s Office.

Jail statistics for 2024 were also listed: 1,339 total jail bookings which generated jail revenue [from Oct. 1, 2023, through Sept. 30, 2024] of approximately $1,185, 115. That total does not include in-jail purchases revenue realized through the commissary, Home Wave or e-cigarettes. Wilson said he expected that total would be far higher this year.

The maximum capacity of the jail is 170, and the sheriff broke down the 166 inmate total [the highest number since the COVID shutdowns] as: 69 local; 51 federal; 8 Ogemaw; 10 Macomb; 1 Isabella, and 27 GTSO [Grand Traverse Sheriff Office]. The sheriff explained that Ogemaw had shut down its jail and was primarily lodging in Gladwin County, and that when it is full, Clare County takes the overflow of those sentenced inmates who are transported by Gladwin County.

“Macomb got ahold of us and said ‘Can you take some of our inmates?’” he said. “What they’re finding is the courts down there will sentence a person; they go to the jails, the jails are overcrowded; they go to the front door and out the back door into the public. They want these people doing their time. They do all the transports to bring them up here.”

Wilson said there was currently work being done on the jail floor, applying non-slip epoxy to all the holding area and showers.

“It’s been 20-some years and they needed to be redone,” he said. He added that he had two local gentlemen who just graduated from the latest police academy who are in FTO and doing very well.

Wilson said his office is currently interviewing for corrections positions in an effort to stay ahead of upcoming retirements. He also noted that a patrol car had been hit on the highway recently, fortunately with no one hurt and damage minimal.

The sheriff also offered a shout out to Josh Chapman, saying, “He is the coolest, level-headed dude you could have doing IT right now. When we went to this dual authentication, and I helped him as much as I mentally could, he handled this whole changeover. And it was huge – you have no idea the amount of devices we have attached to our network here – and he had to touch almost every one of them. He stays calm … and he’s a good plus for our county.”

Wilson also offered appreciation for Administrator Lori Phelps and her staff for working well with his department.

When asked about the jail’s capacity, Wilson described the need to increase holding cell space, and noted that one inmate who, because of his mental state, has been a holding cell since his arrest in May.

Wilson closed out his presentation by saying simply, “We need mental health help.”