CLAY COUNTY – The newly released statistics from 2023 show that protecting the residents of Clay County is no small task.

The Clay County Sheriff’s Office received 257,132 calls for service last year, including 20,364 calls to 911. That’s an average of 704 calls a day.

The county is 644 square miles with more than 1,200 miles of roadways (782 paved, 251 dirt and 250 private roads). The budget allows for 810 people in 155 different jobs in the agency.

There were 577 drug-related arrests, including 268 grams of fentanyl, 1,873 grams of methamphetamine and 26,450 grams of cocaine. The amount of fentanyl was enough to kill 427,000 people – more than twice the number of residents in Clay County, according to CCSO.

The sheriff’s office also removed 114 illegal guns and booked 3,971 inmates. The average daily population at the Clay County Jail was 443 prisoners, and they received 704 hours of religious/faith-based services.

Fifty-one of those arrests ended with a suspect using force.

The average response time was 9 minutes, 41 seconds for emergency calls, and 14 minutes for non-emergency calls, and 56 seconds for non-emergency calls.

Detectives were called out 233 times for robberies, homicides, domestic violence, financial crimes, internet crimes against children, cyber crimes, burglaries and auto crimes. In all, they worked on 2,760 cases.

Traffic-wise, the sheriff’s office made 28,475 traffic stops.

There were 3,807 reported accidents, 57 involving motorcycles and 107 involving pedestrians or people riding bicycles. According to the sheriff’s office and the Florida Highway Patrol, 23 people died in crashes in the county.

Deputies wrote 29,803 citations, of which 16,942 were paid. There were also 12,516 warnings written. There were 268 arrests and citations for driving under the influence and 97 tickets written to boaters.