News from Your Sheriff-November 2024

Hello, Clare County, and welcome to my favorite time of year, fall! Well, the 2024 election is over, and I want to thank all of Clare County for their continued support for myself and the entire Sheriff’s Office. When I first was elected back in 2008, the economy was not good. The county’s fund balance was very low, and I started out with financial issues from the get-go. We struggled for the first few years, cutting back on costs and overtime as much as possible back in those days. We have had our ups and downs over the last 16 years. I have been very fortunate to work with a great group of commissioners and a great county administrator over the last few years. I feel we are heading in a great direction with this county, and being able to provide a service to the citizens of this great county.

I would like to wish Kim Davis a very happy retirement after 38 years of serving here at the Sheriff’s Office. Kim worked under three different sheriffs over those years. She served as my administrative assistant for all my years as sheriff. I would like to wish Teresa Lane a very happy retirement also. She has served as a clerk at the Sheriff’s Office for over 26 years. Congratulations to both of them. We want to wish them both a very happy and relaxing retirement.

The Delta Police Academy has entered its 12^th week. Our two recruits, Lance Shilling and Keegan Chicilli are progressing along great. I get updates on their progress on a weekly basis. There are 29 in total in this academy, which I believe is a higher number of recruits than the past few academies. This academy will graduate on Dec. 13, and I am honored to be the speaker for this graduation for the 115^th police academy at Delta. I was in the 44^th academy. Something very special to me about this certain academy is that my younger son, Evan, will be graduating from this one. Evan was hired by the Bay County Sheriff’s Office and sent to the academy.

From Sept. 15 to Oct. 31,, Clare County Central Dispatch logged a total of 4,990 incidents for Clare County. Your deputies handled 3,462 of those incidents. Other law enforcement handled 953 incidents. Your area fire departments and rescue units responded to 216 calls. There were 294 ambulance calls throughout the entire county. We currently have 139 people in our jail which consists of 55 local, 37 renters, and 47 federal detainees.

We investigated 26 reported B&E’s and Home Invasions during this time period. Of the 26, 16 were actual Home Invasions, or attempted Home Invasions. We are currently working on possible suspect(s) in several of those crimes. The majority have occurred in the central and east side of the county. Several of the reports were from people who have cameras attached to buildings and call in while the suspect(s) are there. In most of these, the suspect(s) take off prior to law enforcement arrival. In a few of the calls, the owner was able to talk through the cameras from a different location, scaring off the suspect(s). If you don’t have outside home cameras, I would highly recommend them. On a lighter note, we investigated 129 Car Deer crashes in the last month and a half. Last year during the same period we had 140 Car Deer crashes reported throughout the county.

I want to reach out and thank our area school liaison officers in this county. They work hard every day keeping our kids safe. They are constantly interacting with kids on a daily basis and building relationships. In today’s world and the threats we address every day, they are a key factor in addressing any and all threats of violence. They have a wide variety of duties when assigned to the liaison position. I served as a liaison for Harrison Community Schools from 1995 to 2000 and will say it was one of the most fulfilling positions I have held over the years. I built many great long-lasting relationships with those students back then that carry on to this day. Thank you to our area school liaisons for what they do for our communities.

I want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for being able to serve Clare County as sheriff for the last 16 years and overall serving Clare County for 37 years. I look forward to the next four years as sheriff!

GOD Bless

Sheriff John S Wilson