County Seat Newspaper
of Clare County

News from your Sheriff-Dec. 3, 2020

Posted

Welcome to December in Clare County.  We had our first snow fall this past month which created very slippery roads and several accidents.  During the months of October and November the Clare County Central Dispatch documented 5,529 incidents with the Clare County Sheriff Office handling 3,774 of those incidents.  There were 52 Home Invasions/Breaking & Entering complaints reported during this period throughout the county. 1 each in Arthur and Hatton, 2 each in Greenwood, and the City of Harrison, 3 each in Franklin, Freeman, Garfield, and the village of Farwell, 4 each in Grant, Surrey, and the City of Clare, 6 in Lincoln, and 10 in Hayes. We currently have suspects in several of these.

There were 51 Fire calls for our area fire departments, with several of these calls being chimney fires. 318 car crashes were investigated with 21 of those being personal injury crashes, 1 being a fatality, and 187 being car deer crashes.

One of the constitutional duties of the Sheriff is to serve all civil process papers for the county. For the 2 months we attempted and/ or served 230 civil papers in the county. There were 235 assault and battery/ threat type complaints investigated. Again, there are several other types of incidents called in. This is just to give you an idea of some of the incidents that come through our Central Dispatch.

We currently have 88 people in our jail which consist of 5 Diverted Felons, 5 Department of Corrections, 23 Federal, and 55 Local.

When Covid first hit we stopped taking inmates from other areas to help stop the spread. One of the companies that handled the transportation of renters went bankrupt due to no one taking renters. Our Federal Inmate numbers also decreased with Covid and have not come back up to where we use to be. Normally we would average around 165 to 180 people in the jail prior to the virus, now we average under 100. We have an entire dorm with no one in it at this time. This dorm is not able to be occupied right now due to construction on the 2 walls still in the works.  We are hoping that this new corridor is completed in the near future.

In August our Covid-19 plan was approved and accepted by the Michigan Department of Corrections. We are now able to test and have results within 72 hours for the virus. We are required to test people that are here between 24 and 72 hours, and prior to going to prison. Inmates can refuse to take a Covid test and are not forced too. At this time, we have had no cases of the virus in our jail.

This Thanksgiving we were able to distribute 10 turkeys to families in need. Thank you to Joe Robinson of Auto Solutions for donation those turkeys. I would like to remind those getting the ice fishing itch to be careful on the first ice. At this time there are no lakes in Clare County that are froze over. We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Safe and Healthy New Year.

I am much honored to be going into my 4th term as YOUR Sheriff. I can’t believe how time has gone by since I first started here on the Cadet Program in the early 1980’s. I look forward to being there for all of you, protecting and serving the great people of this county and those visiting.

Stay Safe – Stay Strong

GOD Bless

Sheriff John S Wilson

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