Editors note: the following information was released by Brown County Sheriff John Merchant 

Recently, I have been asked to compile information about the Sheriffs office number of calls and information about our patrol procedures and practices.  I hope this helps to answer questions from our citizens and taxpayers and if there are any concerns , please feel free to contact me.

The budget for the office side of the Sheriffs department is $640,000, taken out of this fund are the wages  of the Sheriff, Undersheriff, 6 deputies, 4 part-time deputies and our clerk and a part-time clerk. Overtime, fuel, repairs, training, supplies, patrol vehicles, uniforms,ammunition,vehicle and deputy radios and upgrades, etc. also come out of this fund which usually amounts to over $200,000 per year.

This may seem like a lot of money, but with the changing times we have had to adopt different patrol strategies to keep up with current trends in criminal activity.  One example is keeping deputies on the road patrolling our smaller towns in the county.  Each deputy is required to fill out a log sheet each shift  and document each town and time of patrol, mileage, calls handled, vehicle stops, arrests and citations etc.  By having law enforcement presence, this in and of itself is a crime deterrent which reflects the KBI CRIME INDEX report for  2016.   This shows Brown County has a  respectable reported crime rate of 7.6 occurrences per 1,000 residents per year and 6.5 property crime offenses per 1,000 residents per year. This is based on approximately 4886 county residents who reside outside the city limits of Hiawatha and Horton.

The above budget does not include most of the expenses of the FIRST AID/CPR TEEN LIFESAVERS Program , Defensive Driving, Child seat program, Halloween safety program, Drug Takeback, Reserve Program, Mounted Search and Rescue, etc.  These programs are either self-funded or are being operated off of grant funding or donations.  We are very fortunate that we have community minded individuals and organizations  who see the benefit to these types of programs and how it benefits our entire county.

The following are some  statistics from the first quarter of the year, January-March for the Brown County Sheriffs Office:

Accidents-47

Alarm calls-11

Animal calls-18

Building check-32

DUI/drug investigations as well as arrests-32

Information, miscellaneous, assist other agencies, scam reports-503

Service to citizens-20

Offender registrations-89

Suspicious activity complaints-24

Subpoena and warrant service and attempts-315

Theft reports-13

Traffic stops and complaints-636

Investigate suspicious vehicles, disabled, lock-out-160

Vehicle inspections-51

Check welfare-29

K-9 deployment, education, awareness-28

The jail also processed over 130 inmates for the first quarter.  

The average daily population of the jail for January was 26; February, 23 and March, 23

I would also like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to our
county residents. We have a great working relationship and have received a lot of valuable information from your concerns.  Reports of suspicious activity have lead to some very productive arrests and has also raised awareness on what should be reported and information needed to pass on to deputies.

Sheriff John D Merchant
Brown County Sheriff's Office
709 Utah Street
Hiawatha KS 66434