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Wright County deputy reviews 2024 Otsego public-safety data; DUI arrests rose, burglaries fell
Summary
A Wright County Sheriff's Office lieutenant presented the office’s 2024 annual report to the Otsego City Council, reporting nearly 9,000 calls for service in Otsego, a roughly 50% increase in DUI arrests in the city and a sharp drop in burglaries compared with 2023.
Lieutenant Jeff McMackins of the Wright County Sheriff’s Office presented the department’s 2024 annual report to the Otsego City Council on Feb. 24, highlighting changes in calls for service and enforcement patterns.
McMackins told the council the sheriff’s office provides approximately 50 hours of coverage daily for Otsego — “about 18,200 hours a year” — and said the 2025 contract cost was “just a touch over $2,000,000,” reflecting a roughly $5 per-hour increase over the prior rate.
Key figures McMackins reported for Otsego in 2024 included responding to “just shy of 9,000 calls for service,” a roughly 3% decline from 2023; an approximately 50% rise in DUI arrests in the city from about 35–36 arrests in 2023 to 53 in 2024; and a reduction in reported burglaries from 27 in 2023 to four in 2024. Countywide, McMackins said the sheriff’s office made 471 DUI arrests in 2024.
McMackins said the office remains focused on traffic safety because local roadway fatalities continue to involve impairment; he described the county as among “the top 10 deadliest counties for traffic fatalities.” He also described an increase in fraud, particularly cryptocurrency scams, which the sheriff’s office has seen regionally and nationally.
Council members asked follow-up questions about DUI hot spots and coordination with school-resource officers. McMackins said DUI arrests were not concentrated in a single location, and he described information sharing between Otsego deputy school-resource officers and neighboring jurisdictions when necessary. He said one SRO covers Prairie View Schools in Otsego and that deputies “freely share information” with Rogers SROs when appropriate.
Ending: The sheriff’s office offered to answer additional questions and the council did not take any formal action on the report. Council members asked staff to follow up on some information requests, including whether incidents handled by other jurisdictions’ SROs were routinely recorded in Otsego statistics.
