PIKE: Crime down in Pike County last year
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
By BETH ZUMWALT
According to information from the Pike County Circuit Clerk’s office, the number of felonies and misdemeanors filed for 2024 was down from 2023.
In 2023, there were 171 felonies and 61 misdemeanors. In 2024, there were 127 felonies and 52 misdemeanors.
A felony case or a misdemeanor case can include many charges of a particular crime, according to Becky Jenkins of the circuit clerk’s office.
“But it is just one felony case,” Jenkins said. “A case can have multiple charges.”
Prior to 2020, the numbers of misdemeanors were traditionally higher than the number of felonies.
That has changed with methamphetamine becoming more wide-spread.
“All methamphetamine charges are felonies,” Walker Filbert, Pike County State’s Attorney, said. “And I think it is safe to say the number of misdemeanors dropped width the legalization of cannibas.”
Filbert said there were 33 methamphetamine filed in 2024, making up a good sized percentage of the felonies.
Those charged with drug offenses are often the ones who do not appear at their scheduled court appearances, leading to failure to appear charges, according to David Greenwood, Pike County Sheriff.
“A lot of our failure to appear arrests, the original charge was drug related,” Greenwood said.
Other categories of cases filed in the circuit clerk’s office are almost identical in 2024 as they were in 2023.
Domestic battery charges were down in 2023 from 20 to 16 in 2024; orders of protection issued was 133 in 2024 and 132 in 2024, divorces were up by two in 2024, 22 in 2023 and 24 in 2024. There were 282 major traffic offenses in 2023 and 279 in 2024, 39 driving under the influence in 2023 and 30 in 2024, 40 conservation cases in 2023 and 31 in 2024.
The one category that showed a significant increase was traffic, 795 in 2023 and 844 in 2024.
