Dearborn County Prosecutor Aaron Negangard, seated center, said a new multi-jurisdictional Special Crimes Unit is being formed to more effiently investigate and solve certain crimes. Negangard is surrounded by municipal and county police and leaders.

Newly appointed Dearborn-Ohio County Prosecutor Aaron Negangard said a new Special Crimes Unit is being formed in Dearborn County. The unit’s formation was announced Monday morning, Jan. 16, as a multi-jurisdictional effort by the cities’ and county police Lawrenceburg Mayor Bill Cunningham and Police Chief Gene Hunefeld, Greendale Mayor Doug Hedrick and Police Chief DeWayne Uhlman, Aurora Mayor Don Hastings and Police Chief Dana Cotton and Dearborn County Sheriff David Lusby worked with the prosecutor’s office in forming the Special Crimes Unit.
The Special Crimes Unit was formed partly in response to the rising drug-related activity in the county, said Negangard. Narcotics however, are just one aspect of the multi-jurisdictional force, said Negangard.  The Special Crimes Unit will also investigate murder, violent sex crimes, armed robbery and white collar crimes among other serious crimes, said Negangard. Investigations of drug-related crimes, like the recent DeVille’s pharmacy robbery, should benefit from having narcotics and crime units working together under the SCU, said Negangard.
This team approach to serious investigations is designed to quickly and more efficiently solve crimes. “Sometimes you will have an instance where one individual is working the case and he’ll be working and then get a call and have to run somewhere else and the investigation stalls ... This will be a team of people as opposed to an individual working between calls,” said Negangard.
Though the departments have worked together in the past, there has never been an official venture like the Special Crimes Unit, he said. “This is to focus the best resources of these departments to each investigation. They have worked together in the past and this is to take that to the next level, so to speak,” said Negangard. According to the prosecutor’s office, the unit will be supervised by the mayors of Lawrenceburg, Greendale and Aurora as well as the prosecutor and county sheriff. The Special Crimes Unit itself will be made up of three detectives and a crime scene investigator from the sheriff’s department and an officer from each of the city departments, said Negangard.