Pennington County Sheriff’s Office reports varied crime trends in 2023

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - The Pennington County Sheriff’s Office’s crime numbers from 2023 are out, and while there were a few areas where the numbers decreased, there are also some areas where the calls for service increased.

Statewide, 2023 saw more than a 2% drop in crime compared to 2022. According to the Attorney General’s state crime report, homicides, aggravated assaults, and drug offenses all dropped, and in Pennington County, we are seeing the same trend.

“A lot of our local crime statistics have continued to drop since COVID. You know we had that spike in 2019 and in 2020, a lot of our violent crime, not just in Rapid City, but also Pennington County-wide. A lot of those numbers are continuing to drop or level off so I’m excited to see that,” said Pennington County Sheriff Brian Mueller.

Meth arrests made up 80% of the county’s drug arrests in 2022. That was down to 79% in 2023. However, the number of search warrants executed by the narcotics team rose from 138 to 198 and the number of firearms they seized went up from 26 to 54. Mueller said the sheriff’s office is looking into other ways to help solve the problem.

“The state has come into some opioid funding, right now they’re looking for a path forward for coming up with good projects that are going to be successful. Project recovery out here in Rapid City has received one of those grants,” stated Mueller. “They’re working closely with law enforcement, specifically partnering together on how to plug people who might be addicted to opioids in with services in the community, versus just handling it through law enforcement through the criminal justice system which we know by itself has not been super successful.”

Overall, Sheriff Mueller said his first year in office, was a great year, and he’s looking forward to next year, where he hopes to focus more on staff recruitment and retention, as well as pay and benefits, going on to say “we have to stay competitive.”

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