1. Ward County Sheriff’s Department 2016 Annual Report

2. Introduction
The Ward County Sheriff’s Department experienced numerous changes in Everything from staff turnover, changes in yearly numbers, to continuous progress on the jail expansion. The Ward County Sheriff’s Department continues to operate with increased statistics for most divisions with the overall safety of the community as our main priority.

3. Patrol Division
The patrol division is overseen by the Chief Deputy and is supervised by one Lieutenant and three Sergeants. Additionally the Patrol Division has thirteen deputies assigned. One deputy is assigned as a truck regulatory officer. The Patrol Division provides 24-hour coverage, seven days a week, including weekends and holidays.

4. Patrol Division
The main duties of the Patrol Division are traffic enforcement, responding to calls for service, traffic crash investigations, responding to crimes in progress, prisoner transports, serving subpoenas and civil process, and responding to alarm calls. Deputies also work extra duties and special events, such as the North Dakota State Fair, the Norsk Hostfest, and various dances. In addition, deputies participated in state-funded grant programs, such as Alcohol Saturation Patrol and “Click it or Ticket.”

5. Patrol Division
Each year for the past several years, there have been an increase in the calls for service. This year was no exception. There were 18,968 calls for service, an increase of 549 calls over last year. We are hopeful that this slight increase indicates some stabilizing in the amount of calls for the coming years. The following graph depicts the steady and dramatic increase in calls for service over the prior five years.

6. Patrol Division

7. All Reported Incidents

8. Patrol Division
Because patrol deputies spend most of their time on patrol, they make frequent contacts with the public. Many times these contacts lead to traffic citations. In addition, many of these contacts reveal that persons are wanted or need to be served with civil process. The following graph represents the activity of the Patrol Division during the past year.

9. Patrol Division Traffic-Related Activity

10. Accidents
Traffic accidents remain a common call for a Deputy. Property damage accidents make up a majority of the accident calls. Some accidents result in minor damage and do not require that a State Crash Report be completed.

11. Accidents

12. Patrol Division
While on patrol, deputies can find themselves responding to a variety of calls. Some of these calls will require that deputies deal with situations in which people have been consuming alcohol. Some of these people may be underage or have consumed enough alcohol so they are not able to take care of themselves. The following numbers represent some of those contacts.

13. Patrol Division

14. Domestic Violence Incidents
Like other areas of responsibility for law enforcement, domestic violence calls have remained a constant. The domestic violence calls have consistently remained at an alarmingly high number. The following depicts the steady rate of such calls with the slight increase from 2015 to 2016.

15. Domestic Violence

16. Assaults
Deputies often respond to fights at bars, parties and public events. Since these events rarely happen in the presence of law enforcement, victims are required to sign a complaint against the perpetrator. In the case of simple assaults not witnessed by law enforcement, warrantless arrests are not made at the scene. Instead, warrants are issued. For aggravated assaults, a warrantless felony arrest can be made at the scene. In cases where a juvenile is involved, a juvenile referral may be issued at the time.

17. Assaults

18. Truck Regulatory
The Deputy assigned to the Truck Regulatory position continues to be busy. In 2016, 102 trucks were stopped for violations. Of those trucks stopped, 56 had violations where they were issued either warnings or assessed fines. Those fines totaled $42, in 2016.

19. Investigations Division
The investigations division is overseen by the Chief Deputy. It is supervised by a Lieutenant and further comprised of one Sergeant, and four Deputies. Two of the deputies are assigned to the Ward County Narcotics Task Force as Narcotics Investigators. The other division investigators are responsible for investigating misdemeanor and felony criminal cases. They handle a variety of criminal investigations (i.e. theft, burglary, robbery, arson, assaults, sexual assaults, computer crimes, internet crimes against children, financial crimes, fraud, child abuse/neglect, vulnerable adult crimes, & animal abuse/neglect cases, and death cases).

20. Investigations Division
The investigations division reviews all incident reports. Incident reports are all reported crimes and/or any incidents that require a written report. In 2016, the investigations division received 999 cases with a total of 1374 offenses that were reported. Of all the criminal offenses reported, 965 cases were assigned for either further investigation or case follow up. A total of 795 people were arrested covering 835 separate offenses in 2016.

21. All Criminal Arrests
2015

22. Ward County Narcotics Task Force
The Ward County Sheriff’s Department has two deputies assigned to the Ward County Narcotics Task Force. Area members include officers the Minot Police Department and special agents the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation. This multi-jurisdictional drug task force focuses on a variety of drug activities. Their activities include street-level drug buys, drug conspiracy investigations, drug search warrants, intelligence gathering, informant utilization, and the seizure of assets derived from the sale of illegal drugs. The following depicts the various types and amounts of illegal drugs seized by the Ward County Narcotics Task Force in selected cases for 2016.

23. Narcotics Seized 2016

24. Narcotics Violations
Many times, traffic stops result in searches and arrests that yield illegal controlled substances or paraphernalia. The Ward County Sheriff’s Department and the Ward County Narcotics Task Force have charged out a total of combined narcotic and narcotic equipment arrests of 403 individuals with 725 separate offenses in 2016.

25. Civil Process Division
The Civil Process Division, which is supervised by the Administrative Captain, is comprised of a Sergeant, three deputies which includes the Court Officer, and is responsible for a variety of duties within the Ward County Sheriff’s Department. Those duties include, but are not limited to, the service of civil and criminal process, executing court orders and judgments, executing the eviction process, assisting landlords and tenants with disputes, collecting delinquent personal property taxes, conducting foreclosure sales for the county, dealing with mental health persons, escorting prisoners to and from court and medical appointments, and responding to calls for service.

26. Civil Process Division
Ward County continued the trend of low numbers associated with foreclosures. In total Ward County conducted 36 foreclosure sales for the year. This is again an increase from the prior year.

27. Civil Process Division
The Civil Process Division received 5,595 pieces of civil process last year, an increase of over 2,500 papers. In addition, the division received 1,680 subpoenas to serve.
The division generated $67, in revenue from the service of process by years end.
In October 2016, the Ward County Tax Equalization Office turned over 352 delinquent accounts to the Civil Process Division for collection. As of January 2017, all but 23 delinquent accounts have been resolved.
The division received 156 executions of judgments for collection.

28. Pieces of Process Received

29. Subpoenas Received

30. Delinquent Tax, Foreclosures & Executions

31. Civil Process Revenue

32. Civil Process Papers 2016

33. Warrants
The Ward County Sheriff’s Department receives all felony warrants from all law enforcement agencies within Ward County. In addition, we receive numerous misdemeanor warrants to serve as well. The research and service of warrants is the responsibility of one Deputy assigned as the Warrants Officer. The Warrants Officer is supervised by the Administrative Captain. In 2016, the Ward County Sheriff’s Department received a total of 2,714 warrants for service. At years end, 1862 warrants had been either served, cancelled, or dismissed. As of January 1, 2017, we have 3016 active warrants.

34. Warrants

35. Transports
The Ward County Sheriff’s Department expends a great deal of time and energy transporting prisoners. Prisoners are transported to and from the North Dakota State Prison, all detention facilities in the state, court hearings, psychological assessments, and the North Dakota State Hospital. Additionally several extraditions are completed each year to detention facilities located in other states to pick up subjects on Felony Warrants.

36. Transports
In 2016, transport deputies were scheduled to work 251 days, not including any training days, vacation days, or sick days used. In 2016 the Sheriff’s Department conducted transports on 244 days, taking 381 separate transports, and moving a total of 1134 people. In addition, the Sheriff’s Department conducted 11 extraditions in 2016, picking up prisoners in several different states including California, Nevada, Colorado, Utah and South Dakota. We were assisted by the US Marshall Service with one extradition in bringing a fugitive back from Thailand and we took custody of the subject in California.

37. Transports/Trips

38. Training
The Ward County Sheriff’s Department strives to make sure all of the employees have consistent and high quality training. The requirement for North Dakota Peace Officers is that they each receive a minimum of 60 hours of training every three years to maintain their Law Enforcement License. The Sheriff’s Department is committed to providing more training than the minimum standard to ensure all deputies can provide the best possible service to the community.

39. Training
In 2016, the Ward County Sheriff’s Department had 33 individual employees participate in 4987 hours of training. Six new deputies attended the basic academy, which covered 2931 hours combined. The remaining 27 deputies, participated in 2056 hours of training. That averages to just over 71 hours of training for each deputy in 2016, to keep our deputies as some of the better trained and best overall Law Enforcement Officers in the state.

40. Ward County Jail

41. Ward County Jail
The Ward County Jail Staff is charged with the care, custody, and control of individuals brought into the facility for criminal, civil, and/or mental health proceedings. Ward County Jail Staff consists of a Captain Position, 2 Lieutenant Positions, 4 Sergeant Positions, 4 Corporal Positions, 24 full-time Correctional Officer Positions, 1 full time 24/7 Officer, and 1 full time Medical Officer. These positions provide care, custody, and control 24 hours a day seven days a week.

42. Ward County Jail
In 2016, the jail staff booked 4,489 individuals into the Ward County Jail on numerous different charges.
The Ward County Jail continues with the 24/7 Sobriety Program. The program is averaging around 125 participants. We currently have 65 alcohol monitoring bracelets that are all in use. There are over 40 participants taking part in twice daily breath testing and another 20 on the Drugs of abuse patch. The numbers are constantly fluctuating with some participants graduating and others being added to the program.

43. Jail Bookings

44. Jail 24/7 Program

45. Ward County Jail
In 2016, the “Man days”, the number of prisoners’ times the number of days incarcerated, showed a steady decrease from the previous year. In 2016, the Ward County Jail experienced 33,277 Man days which can be attributed to a lower average number of inmates throughout the year. During 2016 the Ward County Jail did not operate over the capacity of 110 inmates at any time.

46. Jail Mandays Per Year

47. Jail Medical
In 2016 the Ward County Jail added a new correctional officer position of Medical Officer. The Jail also added 2 contract positions for Nurse Practitioners. These positions have proved to be extremely useful in providing medical service to all of the inmates. In inmates were seen at sick call, 106 inmates were taken to Trinity ER, and 118 inmates had to be taken to other doctors appointments at facilities outside of the jail.

48. Jail Medical

49. Jail Inmate Costs
In 2016, the Ward County Jail housed numerous inmates in other facilities due to overcrowding. The cost to house all of those inmates in 2016 was $505,
The Jail also housed several inmates throughout the year on charges from other jurisdictions. The jail collected $146, from those various agencies for housing their inmates.

50. Jail Inmate Costs

51. Ward County Juvenile Detention Center

52. Juvenile Detention
The Ward County Juvenile Detention Center provides area agencies, Law Enforcement officials, courts, and others with a better and more efficient avenue to help at risk youth and protect their community.
The Detention Center is overseen by the Sheriff and staff consisting of a Lieutenant, 5 full time correctional officers and 5 part time correctional officers.

53. Juvenile Detention
Juvenile Correctional Officers are tasked with all of the same duties and standards of other correctional officers. In addition to regular duties, they take on call time, assist in transports, and assist with off site guard duties. Juvenile Detention Offices assisted with 31 separate transports of juveniles and some adults.

54. Juvenile Detention
The detention center continues to house numerous juveniles every year from both in and out of North Dakota. In 2016 the detention center housed 89 juveniles. This is an decrease from prior years. One explanation for the decrease would be the use of GPS bracelets by juvenile court to provide the “least restrictive environment” form of juvenile incarceration and tracking.

55. Juvenile Detention

56. Juvenile Detention Admissions by Gender

57. 2016 Juvenile Admissions by Age

58. Juvenile Detention
As in previous years, there were numerous types of offenses that were committed by the juveniles housed in the detention center. A total of 133 offenses were committed by the 89 juveniles housed at the detention center. Most of the juveniles housed at the detention center reside in North Dakota a small number residing from other states. The detention center housed juvenile from a total of 2 states, including North Dakota.

59. Juvenile Detention

60. North Dakota Juvenile Admission by Community 2016

61. Juvenile Detention Revenue
When juveniles from other jurisdictions are housed at the detention center, they are notified that a daily rate of $ is charged to that agency after the initial 24 hour period of the juvenile being housed. In 2016 a total of $30, was received for housing juveniles from other Jurisdictions.

62. Detention Revenue by Month

63. Detention Revenue by Year

64. The staff at the Ward County Sheriff’s Department, Ward County Jail and the Ward County Juvenile Detention Center continue to be committed to providing the citizens of Ward County with high quality, professional, and around the clock service to ensure that our community remains a safe environment for everyone.