By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
From homicides to complaints about barking dogs, the Wood County Sheriff’s Office handled close to 25,000 calls last year. During the same time, road deputies investigated 870 vehicular crashes and jail staff booked more than 2,500 inmates.
A dozen citizens have signed up for a series of 12 weekly classes on the county’s law enforcement, including the roles of dispatching, road patrols, narcotics officers, detectives, Special Response Team, and at the jail. They will learn about the sex offender registration, crash investigations, and the weight and scales division that catches overweight truck loads.
The Citizens Police Academy, organized by Deputy Jill Holland, is held every fall.
During the first class last week, Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn started with a history lesson on sheriffs. The U.S. is the only country in the world that elects its highest law enforcement officers.
“I work for the people,” Wasylyshyn said.
In Wood County, with an annual budget of $11 million, the sheriff’s office is the primary law enforcement for 420 square miles of the county’s 620 square miles. While all the cities and some villages have their own law enforcement, the sheriff handles the rest. Six villages and one township contract with the office for a certain number of hours each week.
Wasylyshyn listed off the stats for the office last year:
- 24,975 complaints received and investigated.
- 284 criminal charges filed.
- 643 traffic citations.
- 3,591 traffic warnings.
Those last two numbers, the sheriff said, show that the road patrol officers aren’t out to issue as many citations as possible. They are there to serve, Wasylyshyn said.
“I want people who are servants,” he said of his staff. “I don’t need big burly deputies.”
He’d rather the deputies use their brains and verbal skills to solve issues.
The sheriff said he does expect deputies to issue citations for OVI, or if injuries or property damages occur.
He went on to list other stats involving road deputies, who drove 971,745 miles last year:
- 870 crashes investigated.
- 122 injuries.
- 9 fatal crashes.
- 83 stops of trucks for weight enforcement.
The portable scales have stopped vehicles that are as much as 60,000 pounds overweight.
“To me, it’s a safety issue,” since overweight vehicles can’t stop quickly and damage roads. The fines for overweight trucks haven’t been adjusted since the 1950s. “The whole idea is to get compliance.”
The civil division of the sheriff’s office served 2,362 papers last year, including subpoenas, summons, indictments, warrants, temporary protection orders, prisoner transports, arrangements for prison extraditions, and sheriff’s sales.
Wasylyshyn handles foreclosures and often performs death notifications.
The sheriff’s office is also in charge of maintaining registrations for sex offenders, arsonists and violent offenders.
In 2023, detectives with the sheriff’s office logged the following stats:
- 246 cases assigned.
- 190 cases cleared by arrests.
- 56 cases pending investigations.
- 103 thefts, frauds or forgeries.
- 35 deaths/suicides.
- 40 sex offenses, child abuse.
- 30 burglaries.
- 15 suspicious incidents.
Unrealistic crime shows on TV have set expectations for the public that just can’t be met, Wasylyshyn said.
“We can’t take your smashed mailbox and test a little piece of it, and find out where the bat was bought that hit it,” he said.
The domestic violence unit arrested 77 last year. The Special Response Team is called out 12-15 times a year.
The jail booked 2,513 inmates last year, and released 2,509 inmates, with an average daily population of 106, the sheriff said.
Wasylyshyn is big on treating people with respect – including those in jail.
“I don’t care how heinous their crime was,” he said. “When we treat the inmates with respect, their behavior is so much better.”
Wasylyshyn talked about the unmandated programs his office offers, which help build rapport with county citizens, such as:
- Kids ID cards.
- RU OK program for seniors.
- Christmas Spectacular for families in need.
- Livestock registration for farmers.
- Golf cart inspections.
- Trunk or Treat for kids at Halloween.
- Vacation checks of properties.
- Project Lifesaver.
- Drug drop box.
- Vehicle lockouts.
“The more community rapport we build, the better we will be,” he said.
