Domestic violence calls spike in county; traffic crashes way down since COVID-19

Overall crime is down, but domestic violence calls have more than doubled in Perry County since the coronavirus struck and Illinois came under a stay-at-home order, Sheriff Steve Bareis said Wednesday.

During the first 3½ months of 2019, the sheriff's department had 140 calls for service, Bareis said. During the same 3½ months in 2020, the department has made 86 reports, he added.

Meanwhile, the department averages a half dozen domestic violence calls per month, but last month they handled 14 calls, the sheriff said.

"Domestics are on the increase," Bareis said. "We have at least twice the domestics we had before."

In Du Quoin, calls for domestic battery have not spiked, said Police Chief Steve Ingram. There were 17 calls in 2019 and so far just nine in 2020, including 0 in April.

But he's concerned.

"I worry that the longer this (stay-at-home order) goes, it's likely those numbers will increase," Ingram said.

"We've had any number of families who can't get along," said Kent Dixon, secretary and lead dispatcher for Du Quoin. But many of those calls don't escalate to violence, he added.

Both departments report that with people staying home and off the roads, there are fewer crashes.

"Our traffic accidents are way down," said Dixon. "We have not had any for April yet."

In March Du Quoin had 11 traffic accidents, with six in February and nine in January.

Bareis said the two areas where Perry County has seen increases are domestics and calls about suspicious people and vehicles. He cited statistics through the end of March that says they are getting more than 20 suspicious person/vehicle calls per month now, double what they normally get.

Bareis attributes at least some of that to people who normally aren't home during the day and are unaware who in the area comes and goes.

Bareis said the general downtick in county reports is partly due to fewer crashes. But whether the coronavirus is causing criminals to stay home along with the rest of the population, he couldn't say.

"It could be related to this (COVID-19) but also to my staffing levels," the sheriff said, referring to having five working patrolmen on the streets these days (including himself), down from last year.

Both departments have personal protection equipment for their officers, including gloves, masks and hand sanitizer.

Ingram is satisfied with the PPE, "considering the availability of resources.

"We don't have medical gowns to throw over our uniforms at the moment," he added.