Sheriff Moran gives 2016 rundown

Phillips County Sheriff Scott Moran gave a year end report to the Malta City Council last Tuesday at the Council meeting and said that the sheriff’s office received a total of 1,520 calls for service in 2016, some of which led to 362 cases investigated.

“Calls for service are anything that take action by a deputy,” Sheriff Moran explained.

Sheriff Moran said that of the 362 cases investigated by the Phillips County Sheriff Office last year which led to a total of 202 arrests being made. Phillips County saw 34 disorderly conducts, 12 trespass to vehicles and property, 16 reckless/careless driving, 54 accident related violations and 26 domestic violence arrests, eight sexual assaults, three manufacture and distribution of drugs, 33 possession of drugs, 10 DUIs, 10 felony assaults, 42 thefts (including felony burglary) and 29 criminal mischiefs.

The 1,520 total calls made to the sheriff’s office last year is slightly up from 2015 (1,411) and the new cases started in 2016 are also up a bit from 2015 (293.)

Sheriff Moran said one concern he has for the current fiscal year is the jail budget. He said that last year he increased his jail budget by 20-percent ($60,000) and six months into this budget year, the sheriff’s office has spent all the money budgeted.

“We are looking to draw some money in from some of the other budgeted items like training and things like that,” Sheriff Moran said. “But it has been a real busy jail-year.”

Sheriff Moran explained that in the past six months, the sheriff’s office has some long-term prisoners, some staying in Phillips County Sheriff’s custody for up to three months. Sheriff Moran said that prisoners can only be held in Malta for 72-hours and most are kept in Glasgow.

In his final bit of information on the night, Sheriff Moran informed the Malta City Council the the sheriff office’s Next Gen 911 program is up and running and added that the new notification system for emergencies (the final part of an approximate $300,000 upgrade) will be fully operational by March 1.

“It sends out mass texts and we can actually take over the (cellphone) towers in Phillips County and send out texts to everybody,” Sheriff Moran said.

Sheriff Moran said the service will be offered to Phillips County schools so they can use it to contact parents and guardians in case of emergencies and allows the sheriff’s office to run emergency alerts across television screens.