CHENANGO COUNTY – The Chenango County Sheriff’s Office was in high demand for services in 2014 while simultaneously facing departmental challenges in staffing, increasing operational expenses, and falling revenue from boarding inmates from outside the county.

In his annual report before the Chenango County Board of Supervisors on Monday, Chenango County Sheriff Ernest R. Cutting Jr. said he and his staff of 23 full-time, sworn deputies handled a total of more than 15,991 calls in 2014 – a smaller fraction of the total 32,412 that were received by the Chenango 911 Dispatch Center throughout the year (10,689 went to New York State Police; 1,412 to Norwich City Police; and 4,074 to other departments throughout the county).

Those calls led to a total 1,516 arrests for the Sheriff’s Office for the year: 286 felony arrests; 600 misdemeanor arrests; 219 violation and miscellaneous arrests; 143 warrant arrests; and 36 DWI arrests.

The report also outlines what was a busy year for the Narcotics Investigation Division which investigates the sale and possession of illegal drugs and drug related offenses. According to the document, Chenango County experienced “an unprecedented rise in heroin use as it became cheaper and easier to obtain than prescription opiates.”

Throughout the year, the Sheriff’s Office made more than 130 narcotics related arrests, 65 of which were felony arrests that included charges for criminal possession of a controlled substance with the intent to sell and criminal sale of a controlled substance. Another 44 misdemeanor arrests were made which included criminal possession of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of marijuana. And another 28 violation arrests were made for unlawful possession of marijuana.

The Office additionally executed 10 search warrants in 2014 in which authorities seized 10 pounds of marijuana, 2 ounces of methamphetamine, 38 grams of cocaine, 55 grams of heroin, and more than 100 illegally possessed prescription pills.