Don W. Farley, Sheriff
The Peoples Report
January 2010
Citizens of the City of
Harrisonburg and Rockingham
County
The purpose of
this report is to inform the citizens of the City of
Harrisonburg and Rockingham County what your Sheriff’s Office
has been doing throughout the year. All information was
compiled through statistical and factual information obtained in
the year 2009.
Patrol Division
In 2009, patrol
deputies answered 18,770 calls for service. This is slightly
down from 2008, in which 19,301 calls for service were answered.
2009 was a
challenging year in many ways but was mainly due to budget cuts
and staff reductions. However, I feel most all of the deputies
and staff pulled together and did whatever extra work was needed
so we could continue to provide the services that the citizens
of Rockingham County and the City of Harrisonburg have come to
expect.
Criminal Investigation Division
On April 10, 2009
the division experienced its first homicide case for the year.
On September 7, 2009 the division experienced its second
homicide case for the year. During the year 2009, sexual
assault investigations continue to comprise the highest number
of cases worked per year of any investigations that the division
handles. In 2008 the division investigated 41 cases of alleged
sexual assault and in 2009 the division handled 54 cases.
Throughout the year 2009 the division continued to be involved
in investigating over 234 cases ranging from breaking and
entering, child abuse, death investigations, embezzlements,
forgery, fraud, identity theft, larceny, rape, runaway juvenile,
missing person, stalking, pornography, aggravated assault and
indecent exposure cases.
Corrections
Starting in January
2009, the average monthly inmate population was 321 inmates. In
October 2009, we had reached 335 and in December we finished out
the year with 313.
The Rockingham-Harrisonburg
Regional Jail continues to contract all GED and computer
training classes with Dayton Learning Center. The following is
a break down of the male and female classes held this year.
87 Males attended GED
classes 14 Females attended GED classes
32 Males attended computer
classes 10 Females attended computer classes
21 Males took GED
exam 5 Females completed computer
class
15 Males passed GED
exam 5 Females took GED exam
2 Males failed the GED
exam 2 Females passed GED exam
4 Males were incomplete (GED exam) 1
Female failed the exam but passed
4 out of 5 parts
2
Females were incomplete
(GED
exam)
There were 21
inmates who completed the GED. 17 passed the test giving our
facility an 81% passing rate for males. In 2008 the passing
percentage rate was 82%.
The
Rockingham-Harrisonburg Regional Jail continues to have an
agreement with the Harrisonburg Recycling Center to provide
inmates to help work the recycle center. We have also helped
Big Brothers/Big Sisters and Camp Kaleidoscope in moving and
building projects. We have utilized inmates to assist in clean
up of gang tagging in the City of Harrisonburg and Rockingham
County. Since the start of our trusty inmate work force in
1998, inmates have worked 159,189.75 man hours in and for our
community.
The
Rockingham-Harrisonburg Regional Jail continues to have male and
female Bible Study classes along with AA meetings, Drug/Alcohol
class, and church service on Sunday evening for male inmates and
Monday evening for female inmates and Hispanic church services
monthly.
Arrests brought
in were 5,501 in 2009, down from 5,502 in 2008. Fingerprints
taken were 1,673 in 2009 down from 2,617 in 2008. Non-Nationals
checked by 287G program were 667 in 2009, down from 682 in
2008. Detainers placed by 287G officers were 87 in 2009, down
from 161 in 2008.
Crime Prevention/School Resource
School Resource
Officers addressed 71 complaints which required IBR (Incident
Based Report) reports in 2009. This is an increase from 52 in
2008. The prevalent concerns being addressed by School Resource
Officers are disorderly conduct, student fights, larceny
complaints, substance abuse, truancy, and persons trespassing on
school property.
In 2009, the Crime
Prevention Unit answered 36 requests for special programs. This
number was down from the previous year consisting of 61
requests. The number of persons served has also increased to
approximately 3,407 in 2009 from 2,926 in 2008. Various
organizations are now participating in major “fair” type events
while others because of the economy have discontinued events.
Some of the major events for the year were WVPT Reading Day,
Broadway Fall Festival Day, Timberville Heritage Days, Health
and Safety Fair at Sugar Groove Naval Base, Grottoes Kids
Fishing Day, “Just Say No” club meetings at South River and
McGaheysville Elementary schools, high school health fairs held
at Broadway High School two days and Harrisonburg High School
one day. Special program type events utilized 211.5 man hours.
Often time’s events were covered by two deputies with larger
events requiring four persons for Child ID.
Our Crime
Prevention Supervisor has, applied and/or managed $493,847.67 in
grant funding during the Year 2009.
Court Security and Prisoner Transportation
In 2008 the number
of sessions of court again continued to increase slightly, with
all courts except circuit court.
The number of
sessions were as follows:
General District Court 375
Juvenile Domestic Relations 338
Circuit Court 359
The screening of
persons entering the courts is now in its seventh year. Each
year weapons and contraband brought to the courts continues to
decline as people become more aware of the procedure. Items
intercepted at the court doors were:
Knives 3,413
Mace 734
Other objects 831
For 2009, the
mileage logged in transportation slightly decreased from the
proceeding year, to 130,586 miles. The reason for the decrease
is due to shortage of man power this year. The road units had
to cover a lot of our long distance transports, utilizing their
own vehicles. Transports consisted of 260 juveniles, 883
inmates, 278 medical and 44 mental. Extraditions increased to
42 in 2009 from 41 in 2008.
Civil Division
The total number of
civil papers served in 2009 was 30,589, an increase of 669 from
2008. Approximately 27,154 papers were served by the Civil
Division alone with the remaining 3,435 papers served by
deputies in the Sheriff’s office.
Types of process:
Attachment
Summonses
0
Child Protective
Orders
127
County Tax
Papers
965
Criminal Show
Cause
839
Civil Show Cause
Summons 843
Division of Child Support
Services 1,121
Distress
Warrants
1
Eviction
Notices
233
Garnishment
1,914
Interrogatories
181
Jury
Summonses
68
Motions
152
Motion for
Judgment
260
Notices
600
Orders
154
Other (Not
Specified)
0
Out of
State
43
Petitions
(Juvenile)
485
Petitions for Protective
Order 121
Protective
Orders
1,002
Show Cause
(Circuit)
52
Subpoena in
Chancery 199
Subpoena Duces Tecum
939
Summonses (Commonwealth and
others) 15,317
Unlawful
Detainer
1,116
Warrant in
Debt
3,110
Warrant in Detinue
327
Writ of Fieri Facias
(Levies)
107
Writ of Possession & Fieri Facias Detinue
98
Writ of Possession in Unlawful Detainer
(Evictions) 215
Child Support
During the year
2009, $102,200.00 was collected in back child support. This was
a result in the service of 1,121 child support show cause
summonses served.
Records Division
The Records
Division continues to work closely with each division within the
Sheriff’s Office. Records have entered 3,000 warrants for
2009. The warrants, Incident Based Reports, and FR300 (accident
reports) are scanned daily into Invize, which allows others
within the agency as well as the Commonwealths Attorney’s Office
to view this information. Traffic totals are 1,980 adult and 81
juvenile charges for 2009. Records have entered 78 FR300
accident reports.
Records Division
has helped the public with criminal histories that total 409 for
2009. They also answer all information requests regarding,
incident, accident, FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests,
regular mail and email. Records have submitted a total of 1,571
Incident Reports to the State Police and FBI. Our agency
maintained an average of 100% for the past 12 months. This
means we have successfully submitted with complete validation
and no errors on any entries.