More women then previous years are dealing drugs in Buchanan County according to the Drug Strike Force.
Capt. Shawn Collie, Drug Strike Force Unit Commander said over the past several years officers have seen an uptick in the number of women involved in drug cases.
“When you look at the last few major investigations that we’ve done, there has been more females involved in the actual distribution of illegal narcotics. When you look at the round-ups we’ve done you’ll see there’s more women were actually involved with the arrest warrants,” Collie said. “Even the increase in the drug use in females from our standpoints has kind of been an increase over the last few years.”
In the latest Strike Force Operation, Collie said seven out of a total of 12 people arrested on warrants in a drug round-up were women. In a round-up in Oct., 2016 Collie said nine out of 24 people arrested on warrants were females.
“Everybody always has theories on the difference on why this is going up or why it’s not. It seems like today’s society that’s just something that’s happening now. Whether it’s because of the social impact on a bad economy or jobs not being readily available, who knows,” Collie said. “When you’re looking at the case you may be looking at a single mother with kids or somebody who is a family person with children. Even as a person that hits home to you; that it’s gotten so bad.”
Collie said the increase in female involvement in crime isn’t just being seen in drug use.
“A lot of the crimes we’re seeing more females involved. Whether it’s as an active participant or… whether their role is maybe driving a vehicle, or involving some type of information that may lead to the crime, knowing the victim or having some type of association to the victim,” Collie said. “Even when you look at some of our more violent crimes we’ve had in Buchanan County over the past year or so we’ve seen females directly involved in those crimes.
The number of females incarcerated in the Buchanan County Jail has seen an increase over the past three years.
In 2014 there were a total of 993 women, in 2015 that number increased to 1,029. Buchanan County Sheriff Bill Puett said in 2016 a total of 1,202 females were booked in the Buchanan County Jail. Puett said, sometimes when the jail sees an increase in the number of female inmates they may have to reorganize the inmate population to make room. He said that could mean doubling or tripling female inmates to a room or if the jail has fewer male inmates reallocating the space to fit the population needs.
While the number of females allegedly involved in drug crimes is increasing, Collie said there doesn’t appear to be a specific age or area of town impacted more.
“This last round-up was a pretty good example. We had females from their early 20s up to their late 40s or 50s…. With the drug problem that we’re seeing it’s that drugs have no boundaries,” Collie said. “As far as how much money they have or what part of town they live in we’ve worked cases in all parts of town. Whether it’s the part that would be considered the wealthy part of town or the poor part of town.”