COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A dramatic increase in local stalking cases is affecting more than just the victims.
This week NBC 4showed you how the caseload is bombarding the Columbus City Attorney's Office and the court system.
But the trickle-down effect doesn't stop there.
Stalking is taking a serious toll on the Franklin County sheriff's office.
"It's staring to escalate to a point where I don't know how much it's going to cost," said Franklin County Sheriff Jim Karnes.
According to Sheriff Karnes, from January 2008 to June 2009, 2,483 stalking and civil protection orders made it to court.
His office serves about 26 of them on a daily basis, but there are only two employees assigned to track down defendants. And Karnes says defendants are often hard to find.
"It takes up so much time to try to go back to some location three times in a 24 hour period to try to serve them. So we get backlogged. We can't serve the papers. That means no one's being notified to come to court," explained Karnes.
But in addition to the difficulty of serving papers, Karnes says 500 civil protection orders were dismissed during the same January 2008 to June 2009 time period because the filers decided not to appear in court.
He says if authorities are going to spend the time and money to protect victims, victims need to comply. Otherwise, he says, it looks like a waste of money.
"Some of these cases, instead of not appearing in court, appear in court so the person who's causing the problem is aware that you will file charges and follow them through," said Karnes.
Karnes says he believes the number of stalking cases will continue to climb.
The Franklin County Commissioners just approved funding this week for a third employee to serve civil protection orders.
For additional information, stay with NBC 4 and refresh nbc4i.com -- Where Accuracy Matters.
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