The Belmont County Sheriff’s Office would like to recognize two Deputies for their outstanding job performance in the month of February, Sergeant Diana Hauck and Deputy Ervin Fulst.

In honor of their hard work and dedication, the Sheriff’s Office would like to present them with gift cards. We will continue to award two Deputies monthly in appreciation for their devoted service to the citizens of Belmont County and the Sheriff’s Office.

The Belmont County Sheriff’s Office website has now been moved to a temporary home of belmontsheriff.com due to unresolvable technical issues with our previous hosting provider. We apologize for the down time we have experienced over the past couple days, and are in the process of replicating the previous site here. Thanks to everyone for their continued patience.

All email services remain active and unchanged and under the belmontsheriff.com domain.

The combined efforts of the Martins Ferry Police Department and the Belmont County Sheriff’s Office led to the arrest of five individuals allegedly involved in one of the larger theft rings locally in recent memory.
Read the full story…

Members of the Sexual Predator Internet Initiative (SPII) Task Force, based in Belmont County, have received state recognition by the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. At an awards luncheon in Cleveland on Tuesday, five out of 14 awards were given to SPII.
Read the full story…

Last year in October Zdanski hosted an open house for the Sexual Predator Internet Initiative (SPII) Task Force and computer forensics lab at the Bethesda Police Department. This lab, and a twin lab in Martins Ferry were still acquiring software and hardware, but had begun pursuing cases in Belmont, Monroe, Harrison and Noble Counties. Other counties and agencies have since joined the SPII unit, and it has received national recognition.
Read the full story…

A program based in Belmont County to catch online predators has been helping investigators bring offenders to court since its debut in 2007. Belmont has joined with Monroe and Noble counties in what officials call a strong team. Officials said that Belmont County is helping put southeastern Ohio on the map for stopping sexual misconduct over the Internet.
Read the full story…

In any community, it’s a difficult job to protect and serve. In fact there have been many lives lost in the line of duty over the years. Since the first recorded death of a policeman in 1791, more than 19,000 law enforcement officers in the United States have made the ultimate sacrifice. These tragedies have touched communities across the country, including the local community.
Read the full story…

Dennis Debbaudt introduced a multitude of good ideas during his Safety and Risk Management training session in March. Debbaudt, the leading voice on autism training for law enforcement and first responders, spoke at the Bellaire Public Library as part of Parents for Autism Community Education’s (PACE) ongoing training and informational sessions.
Read the full story…

Computers little bigger than a credit card can connect users with banks, entertainment, recipes for dinner, employment and each other-in the time it takes to “click.” National statistics state that of children 8 to 12 years old, 87 percent use the Internet; 51 percent are on the internet daily; 45 percent use cell phones; 38 percent use text messaging; 75 percent use Internet instant messaging; 81 percent play games on the Internet. Statistics also relate that one in 17 children is bullied or threatened online, and one in four is exposed to sexually explicit materials online without asking for them.
Read the full story…

The Belmont County Sheriff’s Office is poised to end the year with a payroll surplus in excess of $100,000, just one year after a financial crunch in 2009 led the department to exhaust its budget by mid-year. While the sheriff’s office was forced to lay off several workers last year in the wake of the financial crisis, a tighter ship has been sailing forward this year, employees have been brought back to work and the department has continued operating in the black.
Read the full story…

Styrofoam plates are no longer used at the Belmont County Jail, and officials said the move has saved county taxpayers $23,000 this year. And more savings could happen in the future if they are permitted to serve Kool-Aid to inmates in place of one of their three daily required servings of milk, they said.
Read the full story…