The Butler County sheriff’s office continues to increase efforts to find fugitives who have skipped court hearings.

Sheriff Mike Slupe said the number of attempts to locate defendants who missed county court dates rose from 2,559 in 2010 to 3,314 in 2011.

Slupe said the goal for his deputies is to find as many fugitives as possible.

“I have given them an additional challenge to not only keep up with warrants coming in but to reduce the number of active warrants on file,” he said.

Slupe now has two teams of deputies operating continuously.

While efforts to locate fugitives increased in 2011, there was a slight decrease in warrants served — from 1,644 in 2010 to 1,605 in 2011.

Unsuccessful attempts to serve warrants increased from 915 in 2010 to 1,709 in 2011.

The number of active warrants remained roughly the same, with 1,154 at the end of 2010 and 1,143 at the end of 2011.

Tom Holman, deputy court administrator, said Slupe’s work is appreciated.

“We’re very pleased with the sheriff for having made service of bench warrants a priority,” Holman said.

Warrant trips weren’t the only sheriff’s office duty that rose.

Deputies served more protection-from-abuse or-ders in 2011 than the year before, increasing from 389 to 449.

The deputies also responded to more incidents, with 131 in 2010 and 228 in 2011.

There also were more arrests and citations.

For 2010, deputies arrested eight people for allegedly committing misdemeanor crimes and issued seven citations.

In 2011, there were 15 arrests and 17 citations issued.

Slupe said most of the incidents occurred in the county courthouse and government center. There also were times the deputies assisted municipal police departments outside county property.