Iron County Sheriff’s Office 2013 Annual Report
Iron County Sheriff’s Office 2013 Annual Report /Sheriff Mark Valesano /
Highlights of 2013
String of Copper Thefts
In early October the Iron County Sheriff Office received a complaint of copper theft form a camp located in northern Iron County. The Victim was able to give a detailed description to the Iron County Sheriff Deputy responding to the complaint. With the help of a DNR Conservation Office a suspect was identified and admitted to the larceny as well as another larceny from a different camp. The Iron County Sheriff Office received several other complaints from camps in the same area that fit the MO that this individual used to steal copper. The suspect was convicted of the crimes and served time in the Iron County Correctional Facility.
Michigan Department of Corrections Housing Program
In June of 2012 the Iron County Sheriff Office started housing MDOC Level 1 inmates through a program where the State pays $35 per day, per inmate for housing these inmates. During 2013 the Iron County Sheriff Office continued with the program and brought over $150,000 to the county in revenue
Lost Hunter
In 2013 the Iron County Sheriff Office received a report of a lost hunter in the early evening hours of September 16. Deputies called off the search around 1AM with intentions of resuming at sunrise the next day. The search continued all day until the victim was spotted by a National Guard Helicopter around 4:30PM. GPS coordinates from the victim’s phone got offices within a couple of miles but due to the remoteness and the random two track roads the search was complicated.
BP Marathon Station B&E
In June of 2013 Iron County Sheriff Office investigated a breaking and entering of the Caspian BP Marathon where cigarettes and alcohol were stolen. Utilizing video from the store and witnesses statements they were able to identify a suspect and successfully prosecute the breaking and entering.
Administration
The Sheriff has theresponsibility of providing executive leadership and is the direct liaison with the county administration, the public at large, other law enforcementagencies, state and county departments and offices, and community organizations. The Sheriff oversees the budget and sets policy to run an efficient and fiscally responsible Office. Through his staff, Sheriff Valesano directs the activities of the Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s administrative staff consists of Administrative Assistant Lynda Cross, Undersheriff Thomas Courchaine, and Jail Administrator Lt. Vernon Jones.
The undersheriff is responsible for oversight of the road patrol to ensure properperformance of their duties, adherence to established rules, regulations, and policies andprocedures. Similarly, the undersheriff is responsible with the Sheriff for the maintenance of discipline andmorale within the office. The undersheriffis empowered to act as a lawenforcement officer for the detection, apprehension, arrest and conviction of offendersagainst the law. The undersheriff manages all grants of the Sheriff’s Office. Finally, with regard to general duties, the undersheriff is to ensure thecooperation with Corrections Staff within the Sheriff’s Office and other countydepartments.
Both the Sheriff and Undersheriff provide 24/7 “on call” supervisory response to coordinate major incidents. In addition the Sheriff and Undersheriff are “on call” to respond to calls for service between the hours of 3am and 7am as these hours are not covered by the ICSO or the MSP schedule. This activity is a shared responsibility, every other month, with the State Police.
The Jail is managed by Jail Administrator Lt. Vernon Jones. The Iron County Correctional Facility is staffed by 8 full time and 3 part time Correctional Deputies. They maintain a clean, efficient modern jail facility which serves our communities needs well. Lt Jones supervises, schedules and oversees training of Correctional Deputies. His responsibilities include oversight of inmate services and management of the building and grounds. Through efficiencies that have been implemented in the jail facility, the cost of its operation prior to 2013 has remained flat. With implementation of the MDOC boarding program the Sheriff has substantially offset the cost of operation in 2013 with the revenue received for boarding state inmates.
Administrative Assistant Lynda Cross coordinates schedules of the Sheriff, Undersheriff, and Jail Administrator. She codes and pay bills, maintains Sheriff’s Office records, prepares pay sheets, responds to FOIA and other requests for reports, updates sex offender registry, processes Carry Concealed Weapon applications / Permit to Purchase, and administers civil paper service.
Other responsibilities of administration include the following:
Budget
The Sheriff’s Office has two sides to its budget, the road patrol and corrections side. In addition to general fund revenue the Sheriff’s Office administers 7 grants. These grants require application, periodic status reports, and year end vouchers. Activities of Deputies have to be scheduled and monitored to earn these grants. Special equipment to work these grants must be purchased and maintained. During 2013 the Sheriff Office met his budget obligation and ended the year with a small budget surplus.
Like most other County Offices, the Sheriff Office generates revenue for the county by providing services. Paper service, property auctions, fingerprinting services, and housing county inmates are all responsibilities of the sheriff office that generate revenue. Housing Department of Correction inmates is not a responsibility of the Sheriff Office but an option the Office entered into to enhance revenue. During 2013 the Sheriff Office turned over $63,922 from revenue generated performing their responsibilities. The Sheriff Office turned over $ 24,594 in collected bond money, and billed $151,270 to Michigan Department of Corrections for housing State Inmates. Total revenue for 2012 was $239,786.
Contracts
The Sheriff’s Office maintains 4 contracts to provide correction services. These contracts cover feeding inmates, providing health care, running and maintaining inmate phone system, and providing services and commissary. Contracts are annually reviewed to assure that the County is maintaining its responsibilities in the most cost effective manner. In 2013 the Sheriff’s Office entered into a new health care provider contract that provides a cheaper rate of coverage for inmates and better training for corrections staff.
Emergency Management
Lt Jones and Administrative Assistant Lynda Cross work in the Iron County Emergency Management Unit. This responsibility requires oversight of the county emergency response plan, coordination with schools and health providers in Iron County, representing Iron County on the Region 8 emergency management committee, and conducting exercises to keep the county compliant with the State of Michigan. Both employees have been trained in utilization of the State of Michigan Critical Incident Management System (CIMS). In 2013 Iron County benefited from emergency management grants by purchasing a tracked ATV with trailer and two snowbulances for rescue operations. Since 2007 Iron County has benefited from Emergency Management Grants for various equipment amounting to $236,973.
Civil Process
Iron County Sheriff Office provides civil papers service for government and private entities. These include summons, subpoenas, orders to seize property, eviction notices, public postings, and many others. In 2013 Administrative Assistant Lynda Cross logged, tracked and billed 740 civil process papers that were served by Deputies.
Road Patrol
The Iron County Sheriff’s Office road patrols consists of 6 full time Deputies, 4 part time Deputies, and are supervised bySergeant Wade Cross. Deputies respond to calls for service from the public, serve civil papers, investigate criminal complaints, serve arrest and search warrants, assist other agencies, engage in mental healthprotective custody, and transport individuals to prison. All activity of the deputies initiates with a call for service. Generally calls for service are a good gauge of activity however complex complaints requiring investigations need to be considered. In 2013 calls for service were up 71% over 2010, up 20.5% over 2011, andup 7% over 2012 activity.The activity of the Road Deputies is outlined below:
Calls For Service 2010 / Calls for Service 2011 / Calls for Service 2012 / Calls for Service2013
1743 / 2484 / 2778 / 2993
Nature of Call Sub Total Total
HOMICIDE / 0ASSAULT / 83
SIMPLE ASSAULT / 18
FELONIOUS ASSAULT / 5
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE / 25
KIDNAPPING / 5
CSC / 13
ROBBERY / 1
OBSTRUCT/RESISTS / 8
ESCAPE / 2
FUGITIVE /WARRANT ARRESTS / 162
TRANSPORTS / 83
MENTAL HEALTH / 35
PRISON / 8
MEDICAL / 7
OTHER AGENCY / 22
OTHER / 11
GENERAL ASSISTANCE PUBLIC / 797
LOCK OUTS / 131
WELL BEING CHECK / 22
OTHER / 328
MEDICAL EMERGENCY / 12
PROPERTY INSP / 35
CIVIL DISPUTES / 30
SUSPIC. SITUATION / 91
CCW APPLICATION / 94
PERMIT TO PURCHASE / 52
FUNERAL ESCORT / 2
ARSON / 2
BURGLARY / 59
FORCED ENTRY / 36
W/O FORCE / 7
LARCENY FROM BUILDING / 16
LARCENY / 49
FROM VEHICLE / 5
OTHER / 44
Fraud / 46
BAD CHECKS / 7
FALSE PRETENSE / 19
FORGERY / 2
CREDIT CARD / 9
IMPERSONATION / 7
RETAIL / 2
PROPERTY DAMAGE / 29
CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE / 22
LIQUOR LAWS / 14
INSPECTION / 9
CONTRIBUTING / 1
PUBLIC DRUKENNESS / 4
PUBLIC PEACE / 77
DISORDERLY / 30
WEAPONS / 4
OTHER / 7
FAMILY ISSUES / 36
VEHICLES / 633
OWI / 20
HIT AND RUN / 3
CITATIONS / 257
ACCIDENTS / 353
CONSERVATION / 38
TRESPASS / 27
OTHER / 11
DOGS/ANIMALS / 203
DEATH/MISSING / 23
SUICIDE / 7
NATURAL DEATH / 13
MISSING PERSONS / 3
Assist Other Agencies / 541
In addition to the primary responsibility to respond to the public calls for service, the Road Patrol also offers special services to Iron County Residents. These additional services are outlined below.
Evidence Technician
In 2013 DeputyAdam Schiavo joined Deputies Ryan Boehmke,Abe Varoni, Brent Steinbrecher Brent Benson, and Sgt Wade Cross as evidence technicians after receiving extensive training on processing crime scenes for trace evidence. The Iron County Sheriff’s Office provides the service of these deputies to other law enforcement agencies in Iron County to collect, process, and store evidence utilized to solve crimes in the County.
Child Safety Seat Service
The Iron County Sheriff’s Office receives a grant from the State of Michigan Office of Highway Safety and Planning (OHSP) to educate the public in the proper use of vehicle child safety seats and a service to provide low income families with new safety seat. Deputy Abe Varoni has been trained by OHSP in child seat safety. In 2013Deputy Varoni provided two public education events, met with several individuals to assist in the proper installation of seats, and has provided and installed 5 new car seats to families in Iron County.
DARE
Deputy Ryan Boehmke provides DARE substance abuse education to all 6th grade students in the County. Both schools participate in this program and provide revenue to the County to support the program. As part of his responsibilities Deputy Boehmke coordinates and runs the annual DARE golf tournament to provide funding for the program. In 2012 Deputy Boehmke trained 104 students in Iron County.
Secondary Road Patrol
Deputies Brent Steinbrecher and Brent Benson spend half of their patrol providing enforcement and service to visitors and residents by patrolling secondary county roads. This program is a state funded grant that provides funding to direct patrol to outlying areas of the County.
Accident Investigators
Currently Deputy Abe Varoni and Sgt Wade Cross have been trained as accident investigators. This training has allowed the ICSO to respond to and investigate major accidents in the county, identifying causes and contributing factors.
Drug Court/Swift and Sure
Deputy George Pond is the Sheriff’s Officerepresentative on the 95B District Court Drug Court Program. This program provides an alternative to extensive jail and probation sentences to participate in a substance abuse support group with oversight by the District Court. Participants are in the program for one year. In June of 2013 the Iron County Sheriff Department partnered with the District Court to participate in a new sentencing alternative for felons with substance abuse problems. This program provides aintensely structured supervision of individuals that choose to participate in an attempt to reduce recidivism rates. DeputyPond provides monitoring of participants in both programs by drug testing, home visits and interacting with participants. In 2013 there were 294 home visits/checks completed by the Iron County Sheriff Office. This program is 100% funded by the State of Michigan.
Animal Control
Deputy Schiavo is assigned the primary animal control responsibility, and became the point of contact from the Sheriff Office with the animal shelter and the Health Department. All Deputies respond to animal control complaints when Deputy Schiavo is not working. In 2013 the Sheriff’s Office handled 203 animal control calls for service.
Directed Grant Patrols
In 2013 the Iron County Sheriff Office’swas funded by several grants that directed patrols to specific areas. The Snowmobile grant has a 15% county match. All other grants are 100 % funded by the State of Michigan and the Federal Government. Patrols allowed Deputies exposure throughout the County providing an additional layer of enforcement to help emphasize safe recreation. These patrol included;
- Marine Enforcement
- ORV Enforcement
- Snowmobile Enforcement
- USFS Park Patrol
Corrections
The Iron County Correctional Facility is staffed by 8 full time and 3 part time Correctional Deputies. They maintain a clean, efficient modern jail facility which serves our communities needs well. The primary responsibility of the staff is to keep staff and inmates in a safe and orderly environment. Jail staff distributes meals, medicine, clothes, personal items, and is in charge of maintaining all incarceration records. In 2012 the Sheriff Office took on the MDOC project housing 12 State of Michigan inmates in addition to the county inmates. This has made their job more complex and demanding. The jail is staffed by two correction deputies at all times. In 2013 the numbers of bookings wereup11% from 2010 and 22% over 2011 and 7% over 2012.
2010 Bookings / 2011 Bookings / 2012 / 2013556 / 509 / 579 / 620
Additional services provided by Corrections include:
Live Scan Service
Correction Deputies schedule finger print services for school employees, legal name change prints, CCW applicants and many others.
Trustee Program
Correction Deputies supervise trustee inmates that perform building and grounds maintenance in and around the County complex.
Training
The Sheriff has maintained his commitment to preparing staff with the tools to provide professional service to the citizens of Iron County. Annual training is required by Michigan Council on Law Enforcement to maintain certification. Additional annual training is provided in areas of high liability. These trainings are provided by the ICSO to all LE agencies in the county and include Firearms, Taser, and Survival Tactics. In addition to providing patrol supervision and detective oversight in major investigations, Sgt Wade Cross is the Training Officer and is responsible to schedule and conduct these trainings.
On the Correction Side of the Sheriff’s Office the State of Michigan requires minimum training hours annually. This has been achieved providing both in house training and external corrections training.
Additional Training provided to the Iron County Sheriff’s Office in 2013included;
Shooting Simulator
In 2013 the Iron County Sheriff Office provided training on a shooting simulator that was purchased by Region 8 Emergency Management for Iron County. Sgt Wade Cross trained Iron County Deputies as well as Crystal Falls PD, Iron River PD, and Caspian Gaastra PD on the simulator that offers real life shoot/don’t shoot situations.
Evidence Technician Training
This week long training teaches participants all aspects of finding, collecting and processing evidence left at crime scenes. In 2012 the Sheriff Office sent two Deputies to this training and now has five certified evidence technicians.
Corrections Academy
The State of Michigan requires Correction Deputies to attend an academy and become certified. In 2013 the Sheriff’s Office sent 3 correction deputies the 4 week academy class in addition to other in house training. Plans are to send 2 correction deputies in 2014 completing the training requirement for all full time deputies.
Data Master Training
During 2013 all Deputies attended training on utilization on new Data Master Breath Machines that were purchased by the State of Michigan to replace old outdated machines.
Methamphetamine Investigative Training
During 2013 Deputies Brezek and Boehmke attended specialized training in investigating the illegal and dangerous methods of cooking the illegal drug Methamphetamine.
Tactical Encounters Training
Deputies Benson and Steinbrecher attended aneight day intense training on tactically policing dangerous encounters. This training allows deputies the ability to address these encounters in a safer manner and successfully bring dangerous suspects into custody.
Precision Driving Training
In May 2013 the Iron County Sheriff Office sent four deputies to Precision Driving update training in Iron Mountain.
Death Notification Training
The Sheriff sent three Deputies to Death Notification Training in June of 2013. This training prepares the Deputies in the sensitive and difficult task of notifying members of our community that a loved one has died.
REID Interview and Interrogation Training
Two Deputies were sent to REID training in September. This three day training provides the Deputies with the tools needed for an effective interview or interrogation. Deputies possessing this training have more successful investigations.
Legal Update
All deputies attended 2013 legal update training. This training covers new legislation new case law that focuses on criminal law, enforcement, search and seizure issues and their effect on officers in the field.
Outlook to 2014
It is the mission of the Iron County Sheriff Office to provide a safe community for residents and visitors to live and recreate. The Sheriff Office accomplishes this by being responsive to the needs of our public, by training our staff to provide the most professional service possible, by providing a safe environment for our staff to work, and by being fiscally responsible in execution of our duties.