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Offense Summary Report

As your Sheriff, I want to share this information with you. First, I want to thank the citizens for their support which has contributed to the success of the Sheriff’s Office during the last eleven years. I want the Sheriff’s Office to continue being the forerunner in fighting crime and keeping the citizens of Cass County safe. Even though Cass County’s population has increased significantly in the last eleven years, the most serious crimes have decreased, especially felony drug related crimes. The Sheriff’s Office has concentrated many available resources to combat illegal drug usage and manufacturing. By doing so, the Sheriff’s Office has been successful in reducing the major crimes associated with illegal drugs such as assaults, burglaries, domestic violence, robbery and stealing.

Assaults (aggravated and common) are the lowest since I became sheriff. Burglaries have decreased from over 350 eleven years ago to less than half that in 2007. Domestic violence cases are the lowest in seven years. There were no reported robberies in rural Cass County last year. Stealing was the lowest since 2002. These are a few of the major crimes that have been reduced.

Statistics show us that more contact with traffic violators reduces serious crimes in an area. Increased resources have allowed deputies to self initiate additional contacts with traffic violators, and by doing so, increases the findings of misdemeanor drugs and drug paraphernalia.

Our Dispatch division recorded over 31,000 incidents in 2007 and deputies responded to over 22,000 of those. The remaining 8,000 were handled by other agencies within the county.

The Jail division processed over 3,500 inmates for the year 2007, with an average daily count near100 per day. I might add there have been no attempts of an inmate escape since the new jail has been occupied.

Our Civil Process division processed over 5,000 court orders in 2007, a number that continues to increase.

The Court Security division screened thousands of items and recovered hundreds of weapons that were not allowed in courtrooms. Although an inconvenience to some, we want to keep everyone safe while in the Justice Center.

The Sheriff’s Office will continue to be responsive to the needs of the citizens through patrol, jail, civil process, court security, investigations, providing neighborhood watch, DARE and other important programs.

There are areas of concern that the Sheriff’s Office will concentrate on in the upcoming year. One being the increase in reported fraud cases. Fraud cases previously were associated with drug addicts stealing and forging checks. Today it is easy for criminals to get personal information and use the internet to purchase items using bank account or credit card information, leaving the victim unaware until possibly 30 days or more have passed. With the use of the internet, fraud (identity theft) is one crime being reported that has increased. The Sheriff’s Office has increased the training of investigators to combat this particular crime. I expect reports of internet fraud to increase, but we will continue to investigate internet fraud and put these criminals in jail.

Another criminal statistic that has shown an increase is “sex related crimes”. Again, much of the reported increase is due to the use of the internet with child enticement and pornography cases being reported more often. Also, education to identify these crimes at schools and at home has led to increased reporting of these crimes that was not being reported a few years ago. The Cass County Sheriff’s Office has joined the Western Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, a multi-county task force, which focuses on protecting families from sexual predators and illegal child exploitation.

Reported auto thefts have also increased significantly since last year. Many of which are reported stolen but later removed from the system due to the vehicle being taken by someone who had permission to drive it, or by a family member whom they did not want to prosecute. Also, stolen ATV’s are listed as stolen vehicles, and are stolen because there are many more available and are easy to steal when left unattended. The Sheriff’s Office will do everything possible to investigate and secure prosecution of vehicle thefts. It is important for vehicle owners to help prevent this crime. One way is to always remove the keys from vehicles when left unattended. Also, when possible, park unattended vehicles in locked garages, and again, remove the keys.

~ Sheriff Dwight Diehl