New emergency call data indicate that reports of crimes in Jefferson County are going down — across categories, and in some cases by a lot. The question is, why?
Data compiled by the county’s Department of Emergency Services show that calls for service to the Sheriff’s Office in 2024 declined in multiple areas. Reports of assault dropped to 37 from 51 the year before and a high of 125 in 2016. Calls related to domestic disputes declined by nearly one-half, to 80 from 142. And reports of larcenies or thefts fell to 124, from 143 a year earlier and as many as 238 in 2018.
Those numbers are also well below the county’s 10-year averages. Assaults have averaged 77 per year since 2014, domestic disputes 116 calls, and larceny/theft calls about 177 police reports over the past decade.
Likewise, calls related to drugs or drug paraphernalia have dropped over the years, falling to 22 in 2024. Reports of driving under the influence have come down sharply, from a high of 74 in 2019 to just 11 last year.
Some of these numbers should be viewed with caution: The county’s data universe is relatively small, and short-term ups and downs may or may not be meaningful. An overhaul of the county’s emergency call system in 2018 may have affected certain data.
Still, Sheriff Tom Grimsrud believes, some patterns are real. For one thing, he observes, the county’s demographics have changed over time. The median age has increased gradually to 47.3 as of 2023, from 45.6 in 2010. That may not sound like a lot, but Grimsrud says older folks are less likely to fight. “Some of that is about maturity.”
And “back in the day, we were a little ‘wild west,’” said Grimsrud who has served in the Sheriff’s Office since 1999 and was elected Sheriff in 2021. “People dealt with things differently.” More often today, Sheriff’s deputies are called on to mediate disagreements, and they’re more often trained to do so.
The decline in drug-related calls, he said, probably is related to the state’s legalization of marijuana in 2022. “Back in the day when marijuana was illegal, it was easy to identify by the smell,” he recalls. “At that time, we’d arrest you for the pipe you smoked and the package you kept it in.”
The Sheriff’s Office, Grimsrud said, has been forced to change its focus to less noticeable and harder to identify signs. “We run across people now under the influence of meth, fentanyl, even heroin. They can be more difficult to identify, especially with a younger force – this is their first contact with someone with methamphetamines.”
But in other ways, Grimsrud argues, the decline in crime-related calls reflects shift in policing strategy and tactics.
The Sheriff’s Office has “increased police presence, proactive patrolling and enforcement,” Grimsrud said. “We made the Sheriff more visible, we stepped up drug enforcement, we had a canine. We know that made some bad people avoid Jefferson County.”
Grimsrud points to the sharp increase last year in traffic offense calls, which jumped to 319 from 137 in 2023, and were up 33% from their 10-year average.
“There’s been a directive by me to be proactive. When they’re not investigating, [deputies are] out there doing their job and there’s red and blue lights flashing. There’s a criminal element out there watching.”
Grimsrud says the increased presence is also visible to citizens. “Two hours of patrol before shift, and you’ll be in the school zone when school starts and ends. That signals our presence, just us being out there. I live by that.”
