SIDNEY — The year 2019 was very productive for the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, as it opened the STAR house, the new animal shelter and broke ground for the new booking facility. These buildings could not have been accomplished without the help of the Shelby County Commissioners and the citizens of Shelby County.

“In 2019 we had an overall increase in calls and cases handled,” said Shelby County Sheriff John Lenhart. “We continued to see drugs as a factor in the majority of the crimes investigated. The Office continues to strive to provide the residents of Shelby County with a professional and courteous law enforcement agency.”

His report continues:

In 2018 the Sheriff’s Office partnered with Mclean Township and the village of Fort Loramie to provide a full-time deputy assigned specifically to the township and village and will continue that into 2020. We also obtained a grant to establish and provide a marine patrol on Lake Loramie for 2018 and will continue that service for 2020, as all three of these collaborations are productive for the citizens and communities they serve.

The operating budget for 2020 has increased to $5,774,030 from $5,025,789 for 2019. With collaborated efforts of the Shelby County Commissioners and the Sheriff’s Office, we continue to strive to save valuable tax payers money. With the ever increasing operating cost, the Sheriff’s Office continues to offset some of those cost by entering into contractual services with other governmental agencies.

For 2019 the Sheriff’s Office continued contracts with the following agencies; McLean Township, village of Fort. Loramie, United States Marshalls Service, for the housing of Federal inmates, Federal transports, Out of County contracts for the housing of inmates, Police services with the village of Russia, Patrol contract with the Shelby County Metropolitan Housing Authority, The city of Sidney inmate labor program, Ohio Department of Transportation inmate labor program, Shelby County Metropolitan Housing Authority inmate labor program, city housing of inmates, and Wilson Health for deputies assigned to the hospital.

These contracts brought in a total of $1,209,381.59.

The Sheriff’s Office dispatch center logged 24,831 calls for service in 2019 this was slightly up from 24,717 calls for service during 2018. We had 24,350 911 calls in 2019, this was significantly higher from the 16,836 911 calls in 2018. We dispatched 2,152 fire/EMS calls in 2019 down from 2,173 fire/EMS calls in 2018. We handled 559 vehicle crashes in 2019 this was down from 660 vehicle crashes in 2018. The Sheriff’s Office handled 10 fatalities in 2019, this was significantly up from five fatalities in 2018. The office made 43 adult OVI and one juvenile OVI arrest in 2019. We issued 447 traffic citations in 2019 down from 598 traffic citations in 2018. The office handled 906 criminal cases with 280 criminal arrests in 2019. We made handled 200 call’s to assist outside agencies or units in 2019.

The SORN office supervised 164 in 2019, up from 133 sexual adult offenders in 2018, six juvenile offenders in 2019, the same number as 2018 and four arson offenders in 2019 down from five in 2018. The SORN Deputy filed charges against eight offenders for registration violations in 2019 down from 9 in 2018. The Deputy assigned to this department handled all of the supervision of the offenders to include their required reporting and the verification of assigned addresses.

In 2019 the Shelby County Animal Shelter took in a total of 544 dogs. Of these dogs, 323 were claimed by their owners and 191 were adopted. Based on these numbers, 94 percent of our population were reunited or found new homes for the 2019 year.

The Shelby County jail had an average daily population of 161 for 2019. Total number of inmates incarcerated in 2019 was 1736. The following is a breakdown of arrest by agency;

Municipal Court 172

Common Pleas Court 67

Ohio State Patrol 46

Shelby County Sheriff’s Office 745

Sidney Police Department 575

Village Police Departments 30

Adult Patrol 8

Out of County 26

Federal Prisoners 58

In 2019, we saw the HomeWav video visitation work for a full year, and we are happy with the results. These programs are funded by the inmates using the system and generate revenue for the betterment of the inmates. The Sheriff’s Office continued to conduct various jail programs, such as Paid visitation, Fresh favorites, E-cigarettes, Whole pizza, Work release program, Commissary, Securus Phone system, and the new video visitation. All of these programs are an incentive for good behavior. The total revenue generated by these programs was $285,774.53

With the increase of the jail population and Federal inmates, in 2019 we conducted 795 transports from the jail to various other facilities. Our transport Deputies logged 50,838 miles and traveled to Indiana three times, Tennessee two, Kentucky seven, West Virginia three, Michigan four, Oregon one, Texas one, and Florida one. These transports were all for subjects who were arrested on outstanding warrants.

In 2019, the STAR house had 17 residents going through the program and on Dec. 18, we had our first graduate complete the program. We anticipate 2020 being a good year and look forward to many more completing the program and continuing their sobriety.

The Sheriff’s Office continued the DARE program, which the DARE Deputy teaches DARE at all of the county schools and many additional programs throughout the county, participated in the Shelby County Fair, and attended various other community events.

In 2019 the Sheriff’s Office retired K-9 Colt handled by Deputy Frank Bleigh. We purchased a new K-9 from a police department for a reduced price and added K-9 Bandit to the program to replace Colt. Bandit is being handled by Bleigh, which continues our K-9 units at two teams for the Sheriff’s Office.

We continue to strive to protect our youth by having school safety officers at all Sidney City Schools and Deputy SRO’s at Anna, Houston, Fairlawn and Botkins schools. Each of these SRO’s work with each school’s response teams striving to provide a safe environment for our students and staff.

We are looking forward to 2020, with the opening of the new booking facility, which will ensure the safety of the staff and inmates.

It is a pleasure and honor serving as your sheriff.We are looking forward to making 2019 a safe, supportive and prosperous year for all residents and visitors of Shelby County.