TRINITY — During a presentation at this month’s Trinity budget retreat, city officials were informed that 2023 has been a relatively quiet year so far for violent crime in the city.
Sgt. Ric D’Angelo with the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office told council members that since he has begun spearheading the city’s law enforcement efforts, he’s noticed a dearth of significant criminal activity. The city of Trinity added two sheriff’s deputies in September 2022, bringing its total number of sworn officers to four.
Over that timespan, no deaths have been reported due to wrongdoing.
“Since I’ve gotten up here, no homicides, no robberies, stabbings, anything like that,” D’Angelo said. “Violent crime has been down.”
For the calendar year spanning from March 2022 to March 2023, 2,777 calls for service were recorded by the sheriff’s office. A total of 187 citations have been issued, 661 residential business checks completed, 124 warrants and summons served, and 143 grams of methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana seized.
D’Angelo illustrated how the additional deputies have changed the way Trinity is policed. In April 2022, 74 calls were handled by two deputies with an average response time of 9 minutes, 57 seconds. Beginning in September 2022, the first month after the two deputies were added, D’Angelo said four deputies began handling 260-300 calls per month with an average response time ranging from 6 minutes, 30 seconds to 7 minutes, 30 seconds.
“Other places in the county, it’s taking 10-11 minutes time,” D’Angelo said. “I think we’re in really good shape here. As we’ve added deputies, we’re able to handle a lot more calls and a lot less response time, which I think is what you guys were looking for.”
Drugs continue to represent the bulk of what many would consider among the city’s more troubling criminal activity. Trinity had 38 overdoses in 2022. A total of 26 misdemeanor larcenies, 15 felony larcenies and 11 assaults on females were reported.
Council members asked D’Angelo if the drug activity tended to be concentrated to one particular area of the city limits. The deputy indicated that the pattern doesn’t appear to be the product of one or two main problem areas.
“If you really look back at all of these, it’s all kind of spread out,” D’Angelo said. “There’s nothing that we really have grouped in one area or one street, one specific place anywhere in the city that we really needed to hammer or focus on.”
By and large, the city council and sheriff’s office both appear to be pleased with how the additional deputies have impacted the community. Council members Robbie Walker and Tommy Johnson told D’Angelo the sheriff’s department is doing a good job patrolling the area, and they say that praise is not limited to the local government.
“One guy told me at church, ‘I like that. I see a deputy here about every day or two,’ ” Mayor Richard McNabb said. “It makes a difference.”
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