Citing ongoing population growth and expanding needs, St. Johns County Sheriff Robert Hardwick formally requested a $128 budget for his department this week — a $10 million hike from last year.
The package, Hardwick told County Commissioners, would include 21 new officers along with equipment and other miscellaneous needs.
“Our budget has increased significantly since I became the sheriff just over three and a half years ago,” Hardwick said. “If they were to break down the budget, it’s replacing dilapidated and antiquated equipment. It’s investing into real-time intelligence and technology-based policing. It’s investing in our people that protect people when they’re laying their head to bed at nighttime.”
The county’s top cop has repeatedly stated that the area’s breakneck growth has necessitated a rapid enlargement of his department, and that policing costs have ballooned in recent years.
St. Johns is the fourth fastest growing county in the nation, adding 20,000 new residents from 2022 to 2023 alone.
County dispatchers fielded more than 414,000 thousand calls for service in 2023, up a staggering 42% from 2021’s 290,000 calls.
Hardwick has roughly 1,000 employees in his charge, and said the augmented budget would address compensation from custodial staff to correctional officers.
“This is a sheriff’s office that takes care of everybody in the agency,” he said.
If approved in July, the budget will activate in October.
