Accident or crime scene cordon tape, police line do not cross. It is nighttime, emergency lights of police cars flashing blue, red and white in the background

Washington County Attorney John Gish gave KCII News information regarding the most common crimes of 2022 in Washington County. The most common crime in the county was drug possession, with methamphetamine the biggest contributor. The second most common crime is operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. Gish tells us why he believes this information is important knowledge for the community to have, “Well, I started collecting this information to understand what’s going on in Washington County, and I think data and having that knowledge gives us a better way of figuring out how to attack it. What are the problems? Right, that’s the main question. But recently, I started publishing that information, providing it to the media, because I believe in government transparency, and I want the public to know what’s going on in their community.” The average number of indictments filed for the years 2013 to 2020 was 348. The number of indictments filed for 2022 was 490. The county’s collections from those indictments averaged $266,000 for the year 2022. Those collections include fines and criminal surcharges; the collections go to the State of Iowa.