Mobile County Sheriff: MCSO has 100% homicide closure rate since 2011

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) -Solving homicides in Mobile County is a pretty intensive job for the sheriff’s office.

“They’re dealing with the scene, they’re dealing with families, they’re dealing with witnesses,” said Sheriff Paul Burch. “We’ve always been relentless in pursuing suspects.”

The hard work has paid off. Sheriff Paul Burch says they’ve had a 100% closure rate on homicides since 2011 which he says is something he takes a lot of pride in since he used to lead that unit for several years.

“I wasn’t always well liked when we had a homicide because my policy is always, we don’t go home until we have someone in handcuffs or a name and someone we can sign a warrant on,” added Sheriff Burch.

He says having such a high closure rate is due to the around the clock work from homicide detectives which can last several days when it comes to finding a suspect.

“On any given day working on a case like this they’re working 14-16 hours, and it can be upward of 20 personnel doing that because it’s important for the safety of the community to get a murderer off the street,” said Sheriff Burch.

Sheriff Burch says one of the challenges comes with taking on cases from other jurisdictions if it warrants them looking into it which he says has happened more often.

“Even though there are different jurisdictions within Mobile County they’re all still within Mobile County and I feel like they’re my responsibility,” said Sheriff Burch.

He says they also have a high conviction rate on their suspects which goes a long way to giving victims’ families closure.

“It’s equally important to get some semblance of closure and just a bite of justice,” said Sheriff Burch.

According to their crime report the Mobile Police Department had an 87% clearance rate late year and has steadily increased every year for the last five years.