2026 SPLOST feature:
At 447 square miles, Walker County is geographically a large county. In fact, it’s the 40th largest out of Georgia’s 159 counties… which means law enforcement puts a lot of miles on their vehicles working to keep the public safe.
“We patrol and transport inmates at the tune of about 1.5 to 1.8 million miles per year. So that’s a lot of mileage being put on automobiles. When I first came in, before SPLOST, we were operating automobiles, patrol vehicles, 150, 250, 300,000 miles. And of course, that was unsafe,” said Sheriff Steve Wilson.
…Unsafe for the deputies driving them and the citizens of Walker County, since old vehicles can hinder response times.
“When someone calls 911, they don’t want to hear cars broke down. You know, they expect you to be there and to be there quickly. And within just a few minutes. So we’ve got to keep our vehicles running. We’ve got to keep our vehicles operational. And in order to do that, we need to replace 12 to 15 a year just to be able to keep going with the many, as many miles as we travel,” Wilson added.
In recent years. SPLOST has enabled the Sheriff’s Office to do just that – through a vehicle replacement program. Their fleet includes about 80 vehicles covering detectives and patrol, courts, and detention. “These are some hard miles on these vehicles. When you go from Rock City to center post to snake Creek gap to McLemore, it’s a it’s a large, large county,” said Wilson.
In addition to funding the vehicle replacement program, 2026 SPLOST dollars would be invested in new equipment, including firearms. “Every deputy with the sheriff’s department is on the range a minimum of six times a year,” said Lt. Pat Cook, Sheriff’s Office Special Operations. “Each time that they’re on the range, they’re firing multiple hundreds of rounds to both build new skill sets and maintain the skill sets that they all that they already possess. So those excessive round counts will start to show wear and tear on the firearms themselves, not to mention the fact new technologies emerge. Things make performance on the part of the deputy easier.”
New body-worn cameras, in-car cameras, and four new K9 units are also planned. “What we have focused on here is tracking drugs and patrol. There are there are cases now we have the capability, if an officer gets out on the side of the road or is interacting with a suspect, that suspect becomes violent, the deputy has the capability of remotely opening that cage door, and the canine can immediately jump out of the cage door and come to the assistance of the deputy who may be struggling with a violent suspect,” said Wilson.
$5,000,000 collected over six-years would fund all of these law enforcement initiatives. Visit the 2026 SPLOST page to see all of the projects planned.