‘We are going to arrest you’: New task force cracks down on crime in Hickman County

HICKMAN COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — Crime is down almost 10% in Hickman County compared to this time last year, according to veteran Deputy Lt. Mike Doddo.

Reports regarding stolen vehicles are down 53% while arrests involving narcotics are up 179%, officials said.

Deputy Lt. Doddo told News 2 that officers are getting to crime scenes and incidents faster than ever, which has resulted in cleared cases jumping from 39% to 64%.

According to the Hickman County Sheriff’s Office, the formation of a Violent Crimes Task Force has a lot to do with positive crime stats.

Another reason for the decrease in crime: Hickman County Sheriff Jason Craft.

Investigators said Sheriff Craft brought a proactive crime fighting stance when he took the job, which has also lifted morale inside the department.

The Hickman County Sheriff’s Office’s Violent Crimes Task Force was launched in April. So far, the results have been extremely promising, according to Doddo.

“The first four deployments we seized six vehicles, recovered eight stolen weapons, made 22 misdemeanor arrests, eight felony arrests, seized over $6,000 in cash, 15 pounds of marijuana and 30 marijuana plants,” Doddo told News 2. “They have taken a reactive department and turned it into a very proactive department. The morale at this department is the highest I have ever seen it.”

The task force is made possible by a state grant that pays overtime for K9 teams, detectives and SRT members to work “hotspots” in the county. Investigators said the new task force is able to do their work without taking any resources from normal day-to-day patrols and operations.

“We will look at where we see an uptick in crime, such as car burglaries and narcotics, and we’ll send in our Violent Crimes Task Force, they’ll flood an area, conduct traffic stops and surveillance and they’ll get down and dirty in police work. They don’t take away from the road deputy responding to calls, they are in addition to,” Doddo explained.

From the start, Doddo said the task force saw success, finding a marijuana grow house where nine guns and an AK-47 were seized. Investigators told News 2 information developed on the grow house case has opened up 10 more investigations—some of which will go federal.

“Our narcotics guys that Sheriff Craft has brought in are tearing it up, rocking and rolling every single day. Hickman County is not the place if you want to deal dope. We are going to find you. We are going to take your stuff. We are going to arrest you, and you are going to go to prison.”

As part of his aggressive crime strategy, Sheriff Craft also made sure every squad car had a functioning laptop.

“Is it fair to say you didn’t have laptops in cars before the sheriff took over?” News 2’s Andy Cordan asked Doddo.

“That is correct, we had nothing in the cars, the guys would have to come back to the office to do reports or they’d have to go to a substation that was lucky to have internet to complete their reports,” he replied.

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Doddo said grant money will also put an extra deputy on the road, which will further add to solvability rates and more rapid responses to rural parts of the county.

“Our response time, even though it is still long due to how big our county is, has reduced at least 8 minutes per call,” said Doddo. “As a result of getting laptop computers in cars and having more deputies on the road, officer safety factor is number one. It gets help to the deputy on the road faster. Also, it puts more deputies in outlying areas, and because our guys are getting to calls faster, they are getting to in-progress calls faster, or they are passing the leaving vehicles faster. So, we are able to make arrests because we are there faster.”

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