On Jan. 10, the Sevier County Sheriff’s Office released their end of year law incident report. While discussing this report, Sevier County Sheriff Nathan Curtis shared his thoughts on how the COVID-19 pandemic effected domestic violence cases during the year 2020.

Curtis shared that throughout the state, but especially along the Wasatch Front, that officers were noting a large increase in the number of domestic violence cases, which they attributed to more time spent at home because of the pandemic. Due to this he wanted to pay close attention to the overall number of domestic violence cases in Sevier County in 2020 compared to previous years.

When looking at the overall number, Curtis stated “yea we did seem to see them, but when you start looking at our numbers, our numbers weren’t much higher than they were last year, I think six or seven higher than they were last year.”

Curtis stated he believed officers felt like they were seeing more cases because they weren’t seeing as many of the little things in between, with the total number of incident reports, in Sevier County, down 160 overall last year.

Sevier County also saw an uptick in a few other areas. One being thefts, particularly at construction sites. Second, shots fired cases, which Curtis attributed to people spending more time outdoors due to the pandemic. Lastly, accidental 911 calls which attributed to almost two calls a day. According to Curtis, many of these phone calls came due to individuals leaving their phones in their cup holders while driving.