News from Your Sheriff-March 2023

Welcome to March and the great weather it will lead us into!  During the months of January and February 2023, the Clare County Central Dispatch logged 5,284 incidents for the county.  Your Clare County Deputies handles 2,929 of these incidents.  There were 233 fire/rescue runs, and 362 ambulance calls.  Other law enforcement agencies handled 1,752 which includes the Michigan State Police, Clare City Police, and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.  This generated 324 actual case investigations for the Clare County Sheriff’s Office.  We currently have 121 people in our jail which consists of 70 local, 50 Federal, and 1 Diverted Felon.  Our Central Dispatch Center received 2,648 phone calls during the month of February 2023.

Reported above are 5,284 incidents, so to explain this number that is everything that is done in this county.  This includes both criminal and non-criminal incidents.  When I do this search, I look at the file classes that are assigned to those incidents to determine how many of each type of incidents there are.  For example, a file class of 2300 is all larceny types, a file class of 2900 are malicious destruction of property.  The number of actual criminal incidents that are reported in the above time period is 482.  Law enforcement will investigate all of those calls.  Out of the 482 of those, 111 became a working investigation for the Clare County Sheriff’s Office.  Non-criminal incidents such a traffic crashes, suicidal calls, mental health, etc. generate another 213 case investigations by this Office during the same time period.  When I look at percentages, 32% of the 5,284 incidents were traffic crashes, assaults and or assault and batteries were 11%, home invasions 6%, larcenies 5%, 9% are prisoner transports and warrant attempts.  Other crimes and non-criminal incidents make up the other percentage.  62% of the incidents are reported between 12 noon and midnight with the other 38% between midnight and 12 noon. 

We currently have 3 cadets in the police academy at Delta College.  All three are progressing very well and we look forward to their graduation in May.  Once they have completed and passed the state test, they will be put into our Field Training program.  Field training is between 12 to 14 weeks depending on the progress of the individual candidate.  Once they successfully complete our training, they will be on their own.  I would like to welcome Deputy Eric Steffens to our team, who is currently in the field training part of our program.  I would also like to welcome Luke Davis and Xander Kamyszak to our corrections staff.  Luke and Xander will be attending the corrections academy here in the near future. 

We lost a long time public servant of this county, Carl J. Parks.  Carl worked as a certified law enforcement officer for 19 years at the Clare County Sheriff’s Office.  He worked 3 years in our Central Dispatch, then was elected Drain Commissioner in 2008 and served until his untimely death.  Our hearts go out to his family.  Carl was a dear friend of mine; he will be truly missed by all of us here at the county.

Be Safe, Be Strong.

GOD Bless,

Sheriff John S Wilson