2025 was a banner year for the Greene County Attorney’s Office.

County Attorney Thomas Laehn tells Raccoon Valley Radio that last year the crime rate in Greene County was at an all-time low in his tenure. He says the average pending criminal cases have historically been 75-80, and even as high as 110 during the covid pandemic, but the average dropped to 55-60. Laehn notes that there was a point in 2025 where the pending criminal cases fell under 50, the lowest he has seen.

Laehn spotlights some of the reasons for those historic low figures is due to winning all of their jury trials, which is successful because of the evidence that is collected by local law enforcement and doing their work to investigate crimes.

“We have seasoned officers in Greene County, really great officers who are doing great work. And I think the reduction in crime is because of the deterrent effect of all of that great investigatory work and our success in the courtroom, it’s not because crimes are going undetected. We are detecting the crime, we are investigating the crime, we are prosecuting the crime and that has resulted in reduced crime rates in the county.”  

Laehn mentions another component of lowering crime rates is perhaps his greatest contribution is creating the partnership with Boone/Greene County Probation Services. He notes that non-violent criminals are now supervised by probation officers, whereas before there was “informal supervision” by the Greene County Sheriff’s Office, and due to having limited resources, that wasn’t a reliable source to keep criminals from re-offending. 

He explains that by using this service to reduce the overall recidivism rate, plays to a strategy for those individuals that don’t otherwise get sentenced to jail or prison.

“Long term, we can help achieve those goals by rehabilitating those offenders by helping them find jobs, helping them get mental health counseling, helping them get substance abuse counseling. So I believe that partnership has very much contributed to the reduction in crime in Greene County 

Laehn adds that while his office advocates for prison for violent criminals, those that re-offend in other cases are sometimes sentenced to prison, which in a small county like Greene County, has also resulted in lowering the overall crime rate.