McDonald County is located in the far southwest corner of Missouri. It's bordered on the West by Oklahoma and on the South by Arkansas. The county covers 540 square miles and has approximately 800 miles of roads.
Sheriff Don Schlessman, a 22-year veteran of law enforcement in McDonald County, leads the sheriff's department. The department consists of the following:
14 Field Deputies, 1 Chief Deputy, 1 Operations Officer, 1 School Resource Officer, 2 Narcotic Detection Dogs, 2 Narcotic Drug Task Force Officers.The Sheriff's Office is responsible for the conceal carry permits. These permits can be obtained from the administration office from 8:00am to 4:00pm Monday thru Friday after the proper criminal history checks have been made.
The Sheriff's Office has a 24 hour 7 day a week dispatcher on duty to answer any calls that come into the Sheriff's Office. The Sheriff's Office is open 24 hours a day to serve the needs of the citizens of McDonald County.
During 2007 the deputies drove over 503,000 miles and dealt with over 9000 calls for service. In 2006 the Sheriff's Office purchased 7 Chevy Impalas, as well as 7 Chevy Trailblazers in 2007.
The Sheriff is also responsible for operating the only jail in the county. In 2007 we booked approximately 1620 people into the jail. The sheriff's office and jail is located in the county seat of Pineville Missouri. The jail has 32 beds, but averages 40 prisoners a day. The County Commissioners are currently in the process of the beginnings of an expansion for the jail to over 100 beds.
The department also formed the first ever river patrol on the beautiful Elk River. The Elk River starts with the merging of the Little Sugar and the Big Sugar rivers in Pineville and flows west into Oklahoma. The rivers in the county bring in approximately 5000 visitors each weekend during the summer months.
If you would like to learn about the history of Sheriff's, click here.