News From Your Sheriff-March 2021

Welcome to March and the warmer weather we are enjoying. During the months of January and February the Clare County Central Dispatch logged 4,942 incidents for the entire county. Your Deputies handled 3,192 of those incidents. Other law enforcement agencies handled 1,184 incidents with Fire/Rescue and Ambulances handling 566 of those incidents. We currently have 96 people in our jail which consist of 55 local, 33 Federal, 6 diverted felons, and 2 Michigan Department of Corrections holds.

On Saturday, March 6, the Clare County Dive Team conducted an Ice Training dive on Beebe Lake in Camp Rotary Boy Scout Camp. The Harrison Fire Department trained alongside the Clare County Divers. We currently have 6 certified divers and 4 tenders that on our team.

On March 4, I hosted a District 3 Sheriff’s meeting in our Sherwood Conference Room. District 3 consist of 17 Sheriff Offices which covers pretty much the central counties of Michigan from the Lake Michigan shore to the Lake Huron shore. We welcomed the 4 new sheriffs to our district: Osceola County Sheriff Mark Cool, Midland County Sheriff Myron Green, Ogemaw County Sheriff Brian Gilbert, and Mecosta County Sheriff Brian Miller. Also in attendance was Michigan Sheriffs’ Association Executive Director Matt Saxton and the current president of the MSA, Sheriff Mike Murphy of the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office. Director Saxton welcomed all the new sheriffs and went over all the current issues affecting the sheriff offices across the state. Sheriff Mike Shea and I cooked brats for all in attendance.

The Michigan Sheriffs’ Association consist of all 83 sheriffs in Michigan. Each area of the state is broken down into districts in order to hold local meetings and trainings for the Sheriffs of this great state.

Our attorney/client rooms are almost completed in the jail and should be operational by the end of March. This will provide a room for attorneys to meet with their clients who are lodged in the jail. We are still waiting on construction to be completed on our security wall in the jail.

I would like to yell out a BIG THANK YOU to all of the Senior Service workers who spent numerous hours on the phone scheduling our senior citizens for the COVID-19 vaccine shots. Also, a big THANK YOU to our health department for the rigorous job they have been doing on getting the vaccine out there. This has been a logistical nightmare for both of them and we want them all to know how much they are appreciated!

We will be holding a county auction on May 8 here in our west parking lot. We have numerous vehicles, a front-end loader and many other items that will be up for auction. Scott Sykora from Sykora Auctions will be heading up the show, so come on out and enjoy a good time.

That’s all for this time

GOD Bless

Sheriff John S Wilson