The Baxter County Sheriff’s Website continues to be extremely popular with again more than 2 million visitors to our website in 2016 (2,093,655), and more than 10,000 likes to our Sheriff’s Facebook page (10,445) along with several thousand people who have signed up to receive ‘alerts’ for various releases, notifications and events that the Sheriff’s Office reports.

The numbers are staggering for Baxter County which has a population of approximately 42,000 people.  Broken down for statistical purposes, this represents more than 46,000 ‘Unique’ Visitors and 6.9 million hits each month. 

Broken down even more in 2016 to the most popular:

Month, May with 192,059 Visitors
Date, June 11 with 14,372 and October 19, with 14,235 visits
Days of the Week, Monday and Thursday
Hours most looked at between 8-9 am

The website was created and launched in November of 2007 with the concept of not just having a web presence were people looked up an address or phone number but a true working website.  Without a doubt it has far exceeded our expectations. The idea of a working website was pitched to a local company who developed this very unique website that utilized technology to help us be transparent and utilize the public to help us solve crime and catch the ‘bad guys’.

The Baxter County Sheriff’s website also allows people to sign up to receive alerts by email or text message when things are published. The person signing up has a choice to receive alerts for sex offender’s notifications, press releases, Sheriff’s newsletters, most wanted, employment postings and more.  Several thousand people have currently signed up to receive these notifications with that number growing each month.

The website also features an alert system which flashes the alert for such things as missing children or any other emergency situation. The crime tip module allows people to submit crime tips and photos and remain anonymous. This tip submission module resulted in several arrests in 2016. Most of the features and tabs on the website are automated and update automatically saving time and money for our employees.

After launching the inmate roster online a few years ago, jail staff noticed a decrease in phone calls by approximately 50%.  The inmate roster shows who is currently in jail as well as those who have been released in the past 48 hours. It too is automated, updating automatically every 15 minutes. The inmate roster continues to be the most viewed web page on the website.  Several thousand people have also have signed up to receive the inmate roster alert, receiving one email every morning at 6 am with the list of everyone that has been booked in the Baxter County Detention Center in the past 24 hours.

Over fourteen hundred arrests have been made from our most wanted as well as many suspects being identified and arrested from the posting of surveillance photos. The total number of outstanding warrants dropped by over 900 after just two short years with tips coming in from other states resulting in warrants be served that were issued as far back as 1999.

We want to thank the public for their continued support. We are blessed to live in a community where the public and law enforcement work together to keep Baxter County the great place it is to live and raise and family.

Sheriff John Montgomery