MONROE COUNTY, Ga. — Monroe County Sheriff, Brad Freeman, said he was pleased but not shocked by their 2023 crime report.
"People when they look at the overall numbers just know they live in a safe community," Freeman said.
Looking at the 2022 and 2023 comparisons, there weren’t any major changes. Sheriff Brad Freeman said that’s not a bad thing.
"Kind of remain flat which is good. I mean you certainly don’t want to see an uptick and flat in this case is good because it means it didn’t go up," Freeman said.
Violent crimes did see a small drop in 2023. Arson was down from three instances to zero and aggravated assaults from 19 to seven. Freeman said pay raises last year helped keep his staff.
"The keeping in staff you have, so you know they don't start looking elsewhere and you know if you do have the proper staffing then I think you should see crime numbers go down," Freeman said.
Lourie Thomas opened Jonah's on Johnston with her husband Eric in 2018. She said the report is welcomed news.
"It does make us feel like we made the right decision in choosing Forsyth to be the place that we wanted to start our business," Thomas said.
Not only were violent crimes down in 2023, but the number of 911 calls from the community to report suspicious activity was the highest of any category.
"That's a testament to you know the Monroe County citizens the fact that they do trust us when they give us a suspicious person, suspicious vehicle that we're going to respond in a timely manner and try to investigate to find out what exactly is going on," Freeman said.
Thomas said as a business owner it's nice to know law enforcement takes their calls seriously.
"We don't have to worry about if we were to call if somebody would show up or if we would get support when we need because that's never been the issue," Thomas said.
Freeman said even though the crime numbers look pretty good, people should always stay vigilant.
"You know never let your guard down. Never think you live in some kind of fantasy land where crime's not going to occur," Freeman said.