More money to help the Wake Co Sheriff's Office.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Several North Carolina counties are adopting budgets for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. Priorities include education funding, infrastructure and public safety.

In Wake County, the Board of Commissioners voted to adopt a budget of more than $2.08 billion. The Wake County Sheriff's Office will receive funding to help address the challenges it faces. This money will help them provide more resources to their patrol division and courthouse operations.

The sheriff's office will hire 16 patrol deputies, 13 courthouse deputies and two courthouse sergeants, among other positions. Specifically, for these purposes and including new equipment, the Wake County Sheriff's Office will receive more than $6 million.

Wake County Deputy Sheriff Beckley Vaughan of the Governor's Highway Safety Program says this is a step in the right direction.

“We place a lot of emphasis on our ability to provide resources where we need them, and we need the workforce to be able to do that,” Vaughan said. “So I have high hopes that with this sheriff and the elected officials here, they feel the same way, that there is a need and that they will be able to provide the resources.”

The additional staff is a plus as the office says it receives more and more calls each year. Last year, the agency responded to more than 113,000 calls for service. The previous year, the number of service calls was more than 110,000. In 2021, it was more than 109,000 calls.

As calls tend to increase, major crimes have also increased.

“We can do our job better when we have enough people working to keep us safe and keep you safe as well,” Vaughan said. “Because it's a little unpleasant when you respond to a national call that maybe at first there were two people and now you have a big family involved and you have a deputy.

Other counties across the state are adding additional funds to their sheriff's office in their budget. Durham County is giving the sheriff's office $845,000 for operational needs. Forsyth County's proposed budget calls for a $4.6 million increase for the sheriff's office. Mecklenburg County provides more than $196 million to its justice and public safety departments.