Drug Busts and Speeders Keep Sheriff’s Office Busy

By Gordon Hopkins The Law Enforcement Committee met on Tuesday, May 21, at the Fairbury City Offices. The committee is part of the contract between the City of Fairbury and Jefferson County when the county took over law enforcement duties from the Fairbury City Police Department in 2018. The committee meets on a quarterly basis. The purpose of the meeting is to coordinate between the city and county and keep the city apprised of the activities of the sheriff’s office and expenses. Sheriff Nick Georgi told the committee the workload for the sheriff's office traditionally increases as the summer months approach, “We've been real busy. Calls for the quarter, we had 933 total. That's up from 714.” “We almost doubled traffic stops from last quarter again. Check well beings were up a lot,” said the sheriff. “But like I said, summertime, there's a lot more people out at night, a lot more calls about suspicious people.” As is usually the case, a primary driver of the increased law enforcement activity are drug arrests. Sheriff Georgi said, “Jail numbers were quite a bit. We've had a lot of felony arrests lately. Last quarter we booked in 71 people. Fresh arrests. That was up from 59. So, we've been having a lot of drug arrests in town this quarter again. It's been up quite a bit. A lot search warrants that lead to other search warrants that lead to more search warrants.” Vehicle complaints have also increased. The sheriff said there were 67 calls regarding vehicle complaints, “This time, last quarter, I looked, we had at 20.” A major source of those complaints is from Crystal Springs in Fairbury. “I know camping season's just kicked off, but Crystal Springs is a problem,” said the sheriff. “I sent some guys out there two weekends ago. They spent two hours out there in the evening. In that two hours, they had 14 stops. It's bad.” The sheriff's office is trying to make their presence know at Crystal Spring sin the hopes it will decrease speeding and vehicle complaints. Georgi said, “Presence out there is a big thing. And we've been doing a lot of that lately.”

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