Crime increases slightly in county

By Katie Cole (Contact) | Dadeville Record

Published Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The Tallapoosa County Sheriff’s Department saw a slight increase in activity in 2009, according to a new report.

Calls for service, warrants served, incident reports filed, prisoner transports and the dollar amount of drug seizures all saw a small jump last year. The rise was hardly a surprise given the struggling economy, Abbett said.

“As far as the economic downturn, I felt like we’d have an increase, but it was not a dramatic increase,” Abbett said.

This year the department served 12 more warrants, but incidents reports rose from 1072 to 1162. Calls for service saw an 81 percent increase from 3,949 to 4,850 and prisoner transports rose from 982 to 1,209.

The number of new criminal investigations dropped from 427 to 413 while the number of cases closed rose from 326 to 330.

Abbett said one of last year’s successes was the increased use of video conferencing for inmates in the Tallapoosa County Jail. The technology allows inmates to appear in court through video, which saved money for the sheriff’s department because it did not have to provide security or transportation.

“That’s 538 inmates that did not have to leave our jail to go to court,” he said.

Abbett said the department will continue to offer educational prevention programs.

“We’re still focusing on protecting our children online, our neighborhood watches and our firearms safety,” Abbett said.

Another bright spot on the report was a large increase in drug seizures, which jumped from $30,874 to $48,411.

Jay Turner, coordinator of the Tallapoosa County Narcotics Task Force, attributed the success of a single search warrant, but said 2009 had been a good year.

Turner said meth use was up because of new, easier production methods, but

the county saw a decrease in powder cocaine because availability is limited because of Mexico’s drug war, but methamphetamine use was up due to easier production methods.

“We saw an increase in methamphetamine due to the “shake-n-bake” or what they call the “one-pot” process,” Turner said.

The Narcotics Task Froce also prosecuted several cases in federal court, which resulted in stiffer sentences for many dealers and users.

“That has really had an impact on the area,” Turner said. “Federal court sends a message.”

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