Newton County Sheriff’s office implements new patrol beat

One of the goals for the Sheriff’s Office this year was to increase our visibility and coverage within the County and especially increase our visibility and coverage on the east side of the County. The Sheriff’s Office has worked with the County Commissioners to add an additional four Corporals to our Patrol Division.

Due to this increased staffing, we have been able to better utilize our patrol division to ensure that the entire County receives more adequate coverage.

For several years, the Sheriff’s Office has had two different patrol beats for the County, North and South. As the County continues to grow, it is important that our agency adapts with that growth and that we continue to provide adequate coverage for the citizens, visitors, and businesses of Newton County.

Beginning in September 2025, the Newton County Sheriff’s Office has implemented a third beat that will cover the east side of the County. The addition of this east beat means that a deputy will be assigned to patrol the east side of the County each day. The boundary for the new beat will be 59 Highway starting at the Jasper County line going south, including the City limits of Diamond that are west of 59 Highway, continuing south on 60 Hwy to HH Highway and then south on Owl Road to the McDonald County line. The dividing line for the north and south beat is Iris Road from the west end of the county, to Lime Kiln Rd north to Foliage Road, and then east to 59 Highway.

We utilized different factors in determining the best boundary for the new beat.

The use of 59/60 highway provides a clear and easily defined boundary. We also looked at previous call volumes to try and keep our call volume manageable for each deputy working their assigned beat. In 2023 57% of our calls were in the south beat and 43% of our calls were in the north beat.

In 2024 58% of our calls were in the south beat and 42% of our calls were in the north beat. With the addition of the east beat the call volume breakdown will be as follows: In 2023, 37% would be in the north beat, 38% in the south beat, and 25% in the east beat.

In 2024, 36% would be in the north beat, 36% would be in the south beat, and 28% would be in the east beat. The addition of the east beat also helps to better equalize the call volume in each beat which helps to better distribute the workload and provide more opportunities for proactive patrol time.

“The Sheriff’s Office is committed to providing adequate coverage to our entire service area. I want to thank our Commissioners for providing us with adequate staffing to be able to make this happen. I also want to thank our deputies for providing input into how we could best utilize our resources.

The Newton County Central Dispatch Center also played a critical role in working with our CAD vendor to add this additional map layer to our dispatching system.”