ANDERSON — The number of felony charges filed against individuals by the Madison County Prosecutor’s Office in 2017 fell by 29.1 percent over the previous year from 2,681 to about 1,900.
“That’s a good trend, I’d say,” said Madison County Prosecutor Rodney Cummings in a recent interview.
Asked if he thought the record high number in 2016 was an aberration, Cummings’ response was “let’s hope so.”
“We had a lot of needle cases, a lot of heroin cases and drug cases,” he said. “I really haven’t had a chance to see what the cases are that made the difference.”
When he talks about “needle” cases, Cummings is referring to possession of a syringe, which is a Level 6 felony in Indiana.
“Last year, we had, like, 260.”
The actual number in 2016 was 262. And the number was 246 in 2017, a dip of 6.1 percent, according to charging statistics compiled by the Madison County Sheriff’s Department.
While Madison County “has more than our share of serious crime,” the number of murders and shootings has been down for a number of years, the prosecutor said.
Except for one week in the fall when there were three shootings — the murder of a young woman in Chesterfield, a 15-year-old teenager who got shot, and two men who were shot on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, “we really didn’t have anything like that in 2017.”
Drug cases and the associated crimes of robbery, burglary and breaking and entering and other property crimes “are just off the charts.”
Charges of drug dealing, including cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and marijuana, increased 68 percent in 2017 over 2016.
Although the number of burglary charges in 2017 dropped 22 percent from 2016; criminal trespass increased 85 percent; the number of theft charges increased 5.7 percent; while charges of criminal mischief increased 36.25 percent, according to the Sheriff’s Department report.
One charge that puzzles Cummings, because there was a 238 percent increase from 2016 to 2017, is that of failing to return to lawful detention.
“We have a surprising amount of that,” but as soon as they (defendants) do that, their next stop is prison,” Cummings said.
As a member of the Association of Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys, Cummings is active in developing legislation for consideration by the Indiana General Assembly.
He said there are three main legislative goals this session:
• Creating mandatory minimum executed prison sentences for people convicted of Level 1 and 2 felony dealing.
• Enhancing penalties for those who manufacture and sell synthetic drugs such as spice.
• And making cases where dealing drugs resulted in a death a Level 1 felony crime.
“I think the opioid crisis has become the most serious health crisis that we have in this state and across the nation right now,” Cummings said.
In his State of the State speech in January, Gov. Eric Holcomb outlined his goals for attacking Indiana’s drug problem. His proposal incorporates the goals of prosecutors and includes some others.
Those include requiring doctors to check the state’s prescription drug monitoring program, INSPECT, before issuing prescriptions for opioids and benzodiazepines, improved reporting of drug overdose deaths, increasing the number of state treatment clinics from 18 to 27, and creating a state referral process linking patients to treatment programs.
“Prosecutors welcome these proposals,” Hendricks County Prosecutor Patricia Baldwin said. She’s president of the prosecuting attorneys association. “The opioid crisis needs this type of multi-faceted approach that includes crime-fighting tools for law enforcement, and also monitors drug use and provides treatment.”