Wondering how many crimes against property were reported to the Shawano County Sheriff’s Department in 2025?
What about the number of sheriff’s department incidents responded to in the Town of Grant or the Town of Wescott?
Those figures and more can be fond in the department’s 2025 annual report, but officials point out there’s more to the report than numbers.
“We want to highlight different areas instead of just having numbers every year,” Sheriff George Lenzner said.
Dana Ritchie, office manager, compiles many of the numbers as well as information on department programs and initiatives.
“We have our dive team on there, honor guard, things like that. Court security is a big one,” she said. “Next year, we’re probably going to look into putting more information on the jail programs.”
The report was approved by the public safety committee June 10 and will be forwarded to the county board for approval June 24.
With the resignation of one of the departments’s K-9 officers and the sale of the dog to the Menominee County Sheriff’s Department, Shawano County has only one K-9 unit. Lenzner said a second dog won’t be brought on board until 2027.
“Luckily, there’s not a shortage of dogs in the area,” he said. “We all help each other. Not too many people have dogs on 24 hours a day, at least not with the smaller agencies. Luckily, Brown or Marathon (counties) usually do, so if we need something on that end, everybody helps everybody out.”
By the way, there were 259 crimes against property in 2025, which resulted in 61 cases cleared and 51 arrests (33 adults and 18 juveniles). Sheriff’s department incidents in the Town of Grant numbered 217, while 1,329 were reported in the Town of Wescott.
“As far as the crime stats that are in there, it’s pretty consistent with prior years,” Ritchie said. “I can’t think of anything last year that really spiked in one area. It’s kind of interesting how your area stays consistent throughout time unless there’s a big event. COVID threw things off, of course.”
Crimes against property are often lower in winter months.
“A lot of times … people come up to their summer cottages — they’re not there all year — they come up and find it broken into, so it gets reported then,” Lenzner said.
The more populated areas tend to have more crimes.
The department also routinely tracks the time of day when crimes are reported. Chief Deputy Ty Raddant recently compiled the information for the past 25 years.
“It hasn’t changed in 25 years,” Lenzner said. “It’s the same time of the day that most of your complaints get called in. It’s always in that afternoon area.”
The most popular time for reported incidents is from 3-6 p.m., with 4-5 a.m. being the slowest time.
kpasson@newmedia-wi.com
