Scott County sees sharp jump in domestic violence cases
GATE CITY — While the overall number of calls and drug arrests fell slightly, Scott County saw a sharp increase in domestic violence cases in 2011 according to statistics released this week.
In all, the Scott County Sheriff’s Office responded to 240 domestic calls last year, an increase of 56 percent over 2010 figures.
That sharp increase is a cause for concern, Scott County Sheriff John Puckett said, since domestic calls often are more risky for law enforcement officers.
“These are probably the most dangerous calls they have,” Puckett said. “When you’re taking someone’s wife or children away from them, they can resent it. I hate to see it, but any time there’s domestic violence, if someone is getting beat really bad, we need to get them out of that as soon as possible.”
The domestic violence numbers were in stark contrast to other statistical categories, which saw declines in the single digits.
Drug arrests reversed recent trends in 2011, dropping 5.4 percent to 451.
Despite the lower number of drug arrests, Puckett said the majority of crimes that occur in Scott County are narcotics-related in one way or another.
The drop in drug arrests mirrored the decrease in calls received by the SCSO in 2011.
A total of 8,518 calls were dispatched over the course of the year — 5.4 percent less than the previous year.
Deputies also processed 2,273 warrants — 1,364 of which were felonies — in 2011, 1.2 percent less than they had the prior year.
Although fewer overall calls were dispatched, Puckett said his office — which consists of 16 patrol officers and three investigators — was no less busy during 2011.
“Its been an uphill climb for four years for us,” Puckett said. “This year it went down a little bit for us. When our officers are doing their jobs and answering the calls, a lot of time the crime starts slowing down because people think before they do the crime.
“If the crimes were all really minor it would be easier, but this year crimes like drugs and break-ins were up, so it takes more time to handle crimes like that.”
Puckett said his office was also responsible for performing 152 extraditions in 2011, which also adds to officer workloads.
Further decreases were seen in DUI cases, which fell 5.6 percent last year to 84, and traffic accidents, which registered a 4.3 percent drop with 341 incidents.
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