Greene Co Sheriff Jack Williams

The Greene County Sheriff has released the 2019 report.

Sheriff Jack Williams says over 2,500 investigations were initiated by his office last year and they responded to 2,372 calls for service. There were 91 theft and 90 harassment investigations conducted. Additionally 344 traffic citations and 699 warnings were issued, and deputies assisted the Jefferson Police Department with 142 incidents. A total of 943 offenses were recorded last year for each of the communities that the Sheriff’s Office handled. Sheriff Jack Williams says sexual abuse cases were four times higher in the last year than any other previous year, with 13. Williams describes what he thought was a success in 2019.

“We had a lot of really in-depth investigations that took several hours, if not months, to do. Working with Thomas Laehn, our county attorney, it’s definitely raised the morale with the deputies. They know all the hard work they’re putting into these in-depth and lengthy investigations actually has a result at the end.”

As for the results of those investigations, the county jail report showed higher numbers of inmates booked and hours held. In 2019 there were 438 inmates booked into jail, compared to 2018 with 419 inmates. The total number of hours inmates were held also went up in 2019 to 77,020, compared to 76,358 hours in 2018. Conversely, more inmates were held in other county facilities, due to the Greene County Jail consistently being at or over the eight-cell capacity. Williams says there were 31 inmates housed in other jail facilities in 2019, compared to 24 in 2018. Williams adds, more criminals were also being sentenced to state prison.