By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The fight against crime is a never-ending one. The addition of drugs and alcohol only makes matters worse. Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir estimates between 80-90 percent of crimes in his county are a byproduct of substance use. Sometimes, crimes are simply a product of opportunity or compulsive behavior.
"Some of it is just straight-up bad decision-making," Bellendir said. "A lot of it is drug-induced. People will get strung out on drugs and get addicted. They probably have dope in their car, they don't want us to stop them, the race is on. The next thing you know you have bent-up vehicles and shots fired at officers."
The Barton County Sheriff's Office files all of its cases with Barton County District Court, which also takes cases from municipal police departments. Last year, the county attorney's office filed approximately 470 cases, ranging from misdemeanors like driving under the influence and domestic battery to more serious felonies.
"Even those, a lot of those are drug or alcohol-related," said Bellendir. "Most of the burglaries and thefts we're seeing, those are also our people who are habitual drug users. They're the ones who are typically out stealing. They're the ones that are causing us the most grief with property crimes, violent crimes."
The good news is some of those numbers are down over the last month. Bellendir said some oilfield and farm thefts, usually near county lines, can be perpetrated by people living outside the county. Those types of crimes often follow trends, like when the price of scrap metal is on the rise. They can be harder to solve when dealing with multiple jurisdictions.
"Just like you see on TV, the longer the time lapse between the occurrence of the crime until you have a suspect, the less likelihood there is that you're going to get it cleared," Bellendir said. "It's just hard to do because people cover their tracks."