Rapid City, S.D. (KELO) — The Pennington County Sheriff’s Office says major crime is down in the third quarter of 2024.
It’s a priority for the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office to be seen more through the community.
“If you’re seeing more officers then the citizens are seeing more officers and that’s part of it. I mean proactivity isn’t always just arresting somebody for something,” PCSO Investigations Captain Dustin Morrison said. “It’s being out in your communities, community policing, making connections with those citizens and being visible, being seen and being there when people need us.”
Although major crime continues to decrease, substance abuse is still the top priority.
“There’s been a lot of education about drugs and overdoses, and then treatment is the other aspect of that,” Morrison said.
The Care Campus has been seeing more visitors looking to get help this year.
“Our residential treatment programs, we’re seeing more and more people come into those programs whether they’re coming in on their own or being referred through the criminal justice system,” Care Campus Director Tony Verchio said. “We have people coming in and right now we’re running at 75% capacity.”
With the treatment and educational programs the Care Campus offers, they are able to help people end the cycle and move forward with their lives, which also benefits the county.
“We all know at some level there’s a connection between addiction and crime,” Verchio said. “So if we can address crime not just through the criminal justice side of the house but through helping people with their addictions then hopefully we can attack that recidivism from both sides of that equation.”
In addition to fewer burglaries, car thefts and aggravated assault arrests. The number of overdoses and fatal overdoses are also down.
