The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office would add 40 new deputies under a proposal submitted to the Legislature on Monday by County Executive Adam Bello and Sheriff Todd Baxter.
Bello said the legislation would authorize the creation of the positions and transfer $7 million to the Sheriff’s Office from a reserve fund to pay for the positions. The funding would also pay for the creation of a Regional Investigative Operations Center to aid in multijurisdictional investigations and monitoring crime trends.
“This is the largest increase in sworn deputies in decades,” Bello said during a news conference Monday. “Not only will this expansion allow the Sheriff's Office to have more deputies on the street, it's also going to allow them to focus on areas of crime that are at the forefront of our community."
Bello and Baxter frequently mentioned public safety concerns from gun violence to the rash of Hyundai and Kia thefts affecting communities across the country. They said the new operations center would help the county’s law enforcement agencies work together on investigations and on identifying and addressing emerging trends.
Baxter said the county’s population has grown in the past couple of decades, but the size of the Sheriff’s Office has not, which has meant more work for deputies and less time for them to be in communities.
“We need to assure, as the Sheriff's Office, that we're not running a bare minimum,” Baxter said. “We do ensure we have the staff and the resources to police those areas we’re responsible for and keep that our No. 1 priority out there in the towns that we’re responsible to police.”
Baxter said he hopes to hire the officers by November.
Recently, county legislators and Bello approved legislation loosening the residency requirements for road patrol deputies. Previously, they had to live in Monroe County. Now, they can live in Monroe or its contiguous counties.
