Data: Funding for Sheriff’s Dept. rises year after year

(Editor’s note: This is the first in a series analyzing county departmental budgets based on 2024-25 fiscal spending)

A Budget Analysis

Over the past 10 years, the Sampson County Sheriff’s Department budget has ballooned to over $12 million, up from a little over $7.4 million in 2013. And, of that $12 million total, roughly nine percent, or just over $1 million, is paid out this fiscal year in salaries to 14 individuals who work within the department, including the sheriff.

The Sheriff’s Department budget, financial records show, has steadily increased over the past decade, rising faster than inflation, even as the population of the county has slightly declined.

In the past decade, Sampson County’s population has dropped by about 4,000 people, based on numbers provided by the U.S. Census, while the budget for the Sheriff’s Department has increased from $7,438,636 in 2013 to $10,661,471 in 2023, and finally, this year to $12,015570 for salaries, equipment, and operating costs; with a projected $15,000,000 to be needed for 2025.

“Everything has gone up,” Sampson County Sheriff Jimmy Thornton said in talking about the cost to maintain operations for his department. “Gas, oil, tires, everything has gone up.”

While inflation does play a serious factor in the increase of budgets, putting a strain on counties such as Sampson, some of the increases in the Sheriff’s Department budget over the last 10 years is simply requests based on what Thornton has, time after time, called needs, with many of those requests winning approval from the Sampson County Board of Commissioners year after year.

While many of the county’s departments have seen rate increases year over year, none appear to have seen the jump in new funding as have the Sheriff’s Department and Detention Center over the past decade.

Those two budgets have seen as increase every year, according to county records available over the past decade.

With 2024 number excluded from this number, over $100 million of taxpayers money has gone to the Sheriff Department in the past 10 years, and yet the risk a revolving door of personnel, who Thornton says are leaving for better paying positions elsewhere seems to be a problem that plagues the the two departments.

On Jan. 31, Thornton was featured on a regional news channel talking about budgeting shortfalls, vacancies within the department, and the concern for losing Sampson County officers to better paying jobs in neighboring areas. At the time all but 12 positions were filled within the department. Thornton has also taken to social media to win support for his cause of increasing the fiscal plan, often reminding those who like and share his comments about the crime factor involved when there are few deputies on the road.

During the January interview about the budget, Thornton noted that his department was still recovering from the mass exodus and noted the biggest issue was pay, so his office and the Sampson County commissioners boosted detention and patrol officers’ starting salaries by $8,000 and $10,000, respectively.”

In the interview he stated, “Pay, of course, factors into retention. It certainly factors into recruitment.”

“Most of those losses we’re in detention,” Thornton said in a recent interview with the Independent, stating that roughy 75 percent of his losses came from that department. “That is not a glamorous job. It is a tough job.”

The Sampson County Detention Center has helped neighboring counties house inmates when the need arises, bringing in fees from other agencies across the state. These fees collected for housing other agencies’ prisoners are added to the county budget.

With a population of roughly 59,601, according to the United State Census Bureau at census.gov, Sampson County comprises some 946 square miles, with 154 employees in the Sheriff’s Department, including field deputies, detention personnel, and administration staff. Fourteen of those employees, including Thornton, make up the over $1 million in top salaries for those two departments.

The sheriff and detention budgets make up about 18 percent of the overall total budget for Sampson County. This does not include other services, such as EMS, fire fighting and related needs.

In the Sampson County fiscal budget for the 2024-25 year, page 34 shows that Sampson County employees have received salary increases of 35.92 percent since July 2021. It also states that since July 1, 2021, Detention Center employees have received raises totaling 36.93 percent. Overall, Sheriff Department employees have received raises of 35.18 percent, and all other employees have received raises of 24.47 percent.

Pay for the sheriff’s top-tier employees includes the sheriff’s salary,at $109,740; Chief Deputy James Autry at $88,884 per year; and six captains, four lieutenants, a lead detective, and a first sergeant, collectively earning a total of $1,082,856 per year.

Page 38 includes information from previous budget messages going back to 2020-2021 showing data for law enforcement funding. The 2022-2023 information points out that total expenditures for law enforcement had increased 63 percent over the previous 10 years.

Page 40 of the budget shows that the Sheriff’s Department received $4,804,886 more than the Department of Social Services, which came in as the second highest department budget at $6,637,438.

Page 42 shows a net tax support for law enforcement between 2018 and 2023 totaling $59,762,994. Since 2001, total funding for law enforcement has increased 410 percent.

In a breakdown per every resident in Sampson County, regardless of age, the cost to operate the Sheriff’s Department is $193.84 per person, based on the 2023 budget numbers.

Other counties in North Carolina, some similar in size, or population have allocated funds for their own sheriff departments, but the best comparisons are neighboring counties.

Sampson County’s adjacent counties: Johnston County, Duplin County, Pender County, Bladen County, Cumberland are all unique and different in their own way. They have their own budgets, a different number of sworn deputies, and each budget a different amount to their sheriff’s department.

The Johnston County Sheriff’s Office budget stands at $16,240,453.00 in 2024. This serves a population of 216,000 residents.

Bladen County also has a large land area for their sheriff’s department to cover. With a population of almost half of Sampson County, the 34,000 residents of Bladen are generally spread out over 900 square miles.

The total budget for Bladen County is $80,774,898. Similar to Sampson County’s current budget and land size, but with half the population. The sheriff’s office budget for Bladen, including the Detention Center, increased $1,592,279 or 15.30 percent over fiscal year 2024, while operating on less than $12 million, or about 14 percent of their fiscal county budget. Included in the budget is funding for the increased cost of inmate meals, and additional funding required for inmate medical contracts. This budget also includes funds available for four new patrol cars.

Pender County, home to some of North Carolina’s beaches, with a close comparable population of 55,568 and 871 square miles for the sheriff’s department to cover. They also have a plethora of tourists requiring public safety, thanks to their coastline. The total proposed general fund budget for the fiscal year is roughly $106,000,000. The Public Safety part of that budget is $25,608,650 which includes all aspects of public safety from sheriff, jail, animal control, and others, totaling $17,689,962.

The numbers don’t deter the sheriff, though.

“My priorities have always been, to make sure my employees and the residents of Sampson County are safe,” Thornton stressed. “Can we have every piece of technology that’s out there? No, we can’t afford everything, but we can do our best.”

As far as the budget is concerned, Thornton says he has no complaints with the current budget. When asked what a comfortable budget would be, he said, “I can’t put a number on that. We have a tremendous amount of training we have to do. I have people that are retiring now, and people wanting to go to other agencies to make a better living, but when you lose those types of employees you don’t have seasoned employees, and my administrators do an excellent job at training — but I think it’s very important that we compensate those individuals that put their life on the line every single day to protect the people of this county every single day.

“I’m a firm believer in doing whatever it takes to maintain the safety of my employees and the people, and that should be the number one priority of every level of government.”