Sheriff reports drops in property crime, higher clearance rates and other public-safety updates

The Robertson County Sheriff appeared at the April 20 meeting to brief the commission on public-safety metrics and recent operational changes.

The sheriff said enforcement activity in the Ridgetop area has increased since the county assumed policing duties, citing a 55% increase in arrests and a 16,300 increase in community policing contacts compared with the earlier local police department’s reported figures. He said traffic crashes decreased slightly (from 54 in 2018 to 51 in 2024) and calls for service dropped 43% in the municipality cited. The sheriff said the clearance (solvability) rate in the city rose from 78% to 94%.

For countywide trends comparing 2010 to 2024, the sheriff reported the clearance rate rose from about 21.25% to 86.08%. He said property crimes fell 71% over that span, while total reported offenses increased about 5% because of proactive enforcement (dui arrests rose from 42 in 2010 to 132 in 2024; drug enforcement cases rose from 65 to 349). The sheriff credited proactive patrols and targeted enforcement for those results.

Operational updates included: - LPR (license-plate reader) installations: units have been ordered; one installation that is on a county road (Kinney/Kenny’s Road) does not require the state permit; staff said other permitting from TDOT is pending and installations should proceed once permits are received. - Drone program: the office has added units and trained operators; the sheriff said drones are used for lost-person searches, night rescues and reconnaissance in high-risk operations; the office has six licensed operators in training and uses FLIR/night-vision capable drones. - Farm-watch and SmartWater property marking: more than 30 properties signed up for the farm-watch program; recovered stolen equipment was traced via marking and pawn-shop follow-up.

The sheriff also reported current job vacancies of nine officers and said retention and recruitment efforts have improved compared with previous years. He described recent legislative progress on a domestic-violence registry initiative called "Savannah’s Law," which he said passed the legislature and will be forwarded to the governor.

Why it matters: the sheriff’s data and program updates affect public safety strategies, resource requests and community policing priorities across the county.

Questions from commissioners covered staffing, retention, the LPR permitting timeline, how drone assets are used, and whether the sheriff’s office will seek further budget support for technology.