ROBERT PIERCE

   • Leader & Times

Crime is on the decline in Seward County, and Sheriff Gene Ward believes that trend has a good chance of continuing.

Ward recently issued a press release stating the Kansas Bureau of Investigation had released its 2025 Crime Index statistics, and in the report, Seward County experienced a 29.6 percent decrease in total reported crimes compared to the previous years.

Ward said he and Capt. Trey Steckel found overall, reported offenses dropped from 337 in 2024 to 237 in 2025 in the county, and likewise, a 12.7 percent decrease was seen in violent crimes, with property crimes decreasing by 33,.6 percent.

Ward said KBI officials set what offenses are tracked and identifies those offenses as index crime.

“The index crime rate is a number of all index crimes per 1,000 people,” he said. “The FBI defines the index crime as murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, battery, burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft and arson.”

Ward said these results are encouraging and reflect the continued commitment of deputies and Liberal police officers, support from the community and strong partnerships built throughout the county.

“I believe partnerships were extremely important in reducing crime in our community because law enforcement cannot do this by ourselves,” he said. “We can’t do it alone. Effective policing requires working together with other agencies, community organizations, businesses, schools and the citizens we serve.”

Ward said these partnerships allow law enforcement to address problems instead of simply reacting to calls of service.

“When we form these partnerships, we can develop strategies to address the underlying issues contributing to the crime,” she said.

Despite the 12.7 percent drop in violent crimes, though, Ward said one of those crimes, rape, rose in 2025.

“Rape increased from five reported in 2024 to 14 reported in 2025 in Seward County,” he said.

However, Ward said he feels this increase was not necessarily a growth in these crimes, but rather an increase in victims reporting rape.

“This is due to the growing trust victims have in the local law enforcement to be an advocate for them,” he said.

Ward said the 33.6 percent decrease in property crimes, which he said are often crimes of opportunity, also saw a decrease in each category tracked.

“Simply making sure your vehicles and homes are locked and secured and law enforcement being seen in the community can detour someone from committing these crimes,” he said.

With motor vehicle accidents, Ward said Kansas has a new crash data system, and this is the newest statewide law enforcement technology platform available in the state.

“We also have de-escalation training we didn’t have before,” he said. “We have drones that fly around now, and we use digital fingerprints instead of the old ones.”

Ward said he believes one of the biggest contributing factors to the significant decrease in local crime has been law enforcement’s proactive approach to combatting drug crimes.

“In my experience, drug crime is often connected to many of the other problems we deal with, such as thefts, burglaries, violent offenses and other quality of life issues,” he said. “Law enforcement has developed relationships within the community to take action in combatting these offenses before they can become larger issues.”

Ward said effective drug enforcement is much more than simply making an arrest.

“It’s about disrupting those individuals and organizations that are taking advantage of others and contributing to the drug problems,” he said.

Ward said law enforcement has come a long way in recent years in reducing the availability of drugs in our community, and these issues will continue to be actively addressed.

“I have to give credit where credit is due,” he said. “It is definitely because of our task force for drugs that Trey is in charge of.”

Ward said while it is his job to make sure the community is constantly safe, he too said stats show Seward County is a safe place to live.

“Crime is decreasing, and you have law enforcement and the community partnering together to show criminal activity in our community will not simply be tolerated,” he said.

Statewide, Ward said KBI has also reported a drop in total index crimes, and the totals reported for 2025 were the lowest seen in the Sunflower State in more than half a century.

“This was due to property index crimes decreasing over the last 10 years, but unfortunately on the state level, violent index crimes have been trending up over the last 10 years,” he said. “The national crime index is trending sharply downward, seeing violent and property crimes both trending downward.”

To continue this trend, Ward said law enforcement and the community must continue to work together to build partnerships.

“These partnerships are paramount to the overall safety and quality of life in the community,” he said.

Monday, county commissioners approved a revenue neutral budget for Fiscal Year 2027, and Ward said he actually has two budgets he oversees as sheriff.

“One is for the sheriff’s office, and one is for the jail,” he said.

On the jail side, Ward said some line items have gone down for the upcoming fiscal year.

“For example, in 2025, I asked for $150,000 for medical care for inmates,” he said. “Because we put on a couple nurses and our inmate population has gone down, this year, I only requested $60,000. That’s a $90,000 decrease in the budget.”

Ward said sheriff’s office staff are doing their part to help keep spending down in the department.

“Overall, it’s looking pretty tight, but we’ll make it work,” he said. “We are watching overtime, and we’re only buying things we absolutely need not want.”

Because of community cooperation and the partnerships built, Ward said he is quite pleased with the current crime outlook in Seward County.

“My job as the sheriff is to keep our community safe,” he said. “We can always do better, but I believe we are doing our job, and we are on the right track.”