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Crook County sheriff reports mixed March crime and jail statistics; staffing cited as pressure point
Summary
Sheriff Bill Elliott presented March 2025 statistics showing declines in some categories and increases in others, highlighted a DUI crash that consumed significant resources, and said moving a patrol deputy to the jail will reduce overtime for the next 30 days.
Sheriff Bill Elliott told the Crook County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday that March 2025 crime and jail statistics showed mixed trends: some incident categories fell while others rose, and staffing pressures shaped operations.
Elliott reported the county was down 26% in "in person" crimes compared with March 2024, while property crimes were up about 32%. He said arrests in the sheriff's office increased overall by 17%, with adult felony arrests up compared with the prior year. Bookings across local custody (including Oregon State Police and municipal agencies) rose about 9%.
Elliott said 24 people were booked for driving under the influence last month. He reported 25 assaults in March compared with 14 in the prior March, a 44% increase. Use-of-force incidents held steady at one for the month. Calls for service totaled 1,347 in March, a 4% decrease from the previous year; self-initiated calls numbered 715, down roughly 0.2%.
The sheriff described a recent DUI crash that occurred the prior night involving a driver from another jurisdiction and three children in the vehicle; one child was reported seriously injured. The case required a search warrant, cross-jurisdiction coordination and approximately nine hours of overtime from a detective. Elliott said investigators will file an additional warrant in the coming day to complete the case.
To reduce jail overtime after a staff member went on FMLA, Elliott said the office will temporarily reassign one patrol deputy to the jail for about 30 days. That move, he said, will save roughly 100 hours of jail overtime over the next month but will deplete patrol resources and may result in overtime when major calls arise.
Elliott said the temporary assignment is part of orientation and the agency's field training process; deputies receive a 30-day familiarization in the jail but are not certified corrections officers and cannot perform certain duties (such as booking) alone.
The sheriff's presentation emphasized staffing limits as an operational constraint and described how complex incidents and cross-jurisdictional responses require significant detective time and overtime.
