In the last few weeks, we received year-end numbers from Carroll Police Chief, Brad Burke, who says many of their criminal statistics for 2019 dropped or remained steady with 2018. However, there was a big jump in one area, mental health calls. These rose from 13 in 2018 to 44 in 2019. Carroll County Sheriff, Ken Pingrey, provided us with some of his year-end stats, and described how his office is also impacted by an increase in this same area.
The number of drug violations rose and Pingrey says the problem is becoming more and more prevalent.
Pingrey says they were able to take a significant amount of methamphetamine and marijuana off the streets. They are working hard on these indictments because a federal 10 year sentence means the perpetrator will serve 10 years. In the state system, a prisoner may serve only one year or a little more on a 10 year sentence. The drug incident increases, he says, are partially behind his recent request for a new deputy. He would like to dedicate one man to narcotics investigations on a full-time basis. Pingrey presented a comparison of six counties of similar population size with Carroll, three above and three below, demonstrating they were the lowest staffed among all of those. He says they have had nine deputies on staff for the past 23 years and the increase in activity is enough to warrant another deputy on the streets. He is also asking for an addition in the office area of his department.
This would also address concerns from state auditors on having one person handling all processes. Pingrey is pleased and thankful to his staff, saying everyone he has hired as Sheriff has remained under his employ. Other stats from 2019 include response to 4,700 calls and a decrease in accidents from 163, two of which were fatalities, down to 152 accidents with one fatality that was the result of a medical issue.
