Sheriff's Office releases 2010 annual report

The past year was another busy one for the Genesee County Sheriff's Office, with members of the department handling 21,334 calls for service.

While the number of calls for service was down, the overall number of calls to the dispatch center was up, according to Sheriff Gary Maha.

Increasingly, Maha said, people are using 9-1-1 or the 343-5000 number to seek all kinds of information and help.

When people don't know what to do, who to call, or after business hours for other government agencies, they call the dispatch center.

"That's fine," Maha said. "That's what we're here for -- to provide public service."

Dispatchers, Maha said, may not be able to help the caller directly, but may be able to point them to the right resource for help.

The Sheriff's Office released its 2010 annual report today, which breaks down most of the statistics related to call volume, number of criminal reports, accidents and arrests.

In recent times, in a bad economy, the Sheriff's Office has had more and more activity to deal with, Maha said, adding that less money leads to more police activity as well as tighter government budgets.

"We haven't asked for any more help," Maha said. "In our current budget situation, I certainly don't want to lay anybody off. That would put the public in jeopardy if I had to lay off any deputies and it would put my own people in jeopardy."

Maha said police services remain local government's number one priority.

"What kind of quality of life is it if you don't feel safe?" Maha asked. "If you're going to the store at night, or walking down the street, you don't want to worry about getting mugged. What kind of quality of life is that?"

Here's some highlights from the 2010 report:

More than 1,100 people were booked into Genesee County Jail. The highest single-day population was 99 and the lowest was 35. In all, 70,761 meals were served. Education services were provided to 116 inmates and 11 received GEDs.  Inmate medical expenses totaled $204,438.

There were 202 DWI arrests. Of those, 50 people age 21-24 were arrested for DWI, and 34 in the 25-29 age bracket. Males were arrested far more frequently than females, at 140 to 62. Saturday is the biggest DWI arrest day at 68 followed by Sunday at 43. Most arrests are between midnight and 3 a.m., with 83 total arrests during those hours. Two people arrested had a BAC of .31 or greater. A total of 43 people had BAC of .18 or greater. There were 27 felony DWI arrests.

There were 1,360 motor vehicle accidents handled by the Sheriff's Office. Of those, 202 were personal injury and five were fatal.

There were arrests made on 75 felony counts by the Sheriff's Office and 354 misdemeanor charges.

Crimes reported: 106 were burglary, 140 were criminal mischief, 155 were harassment, 367 were larceny, 133 were liquor law violations, and 117 were unlawful possession of marijuana.

In all, there were 1,680 criminal reports made in 2010.

There were 573 domestic incident reports.

Here's the number of calls for service by community:

Alabama: 770

Alexander: 844

Town of Batavia: 8,122

Bergen: 1,139

Bethany: 635

Byron: 695

Corfu: 252

Darien: 1,306

Elba: 728

Le Roy: 1,442

Oakfield: 1,059

Pavilion: 685

Pembroke: 1,628