The diligent efforts of Deputy Victor Porter helped the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office close three unrelated cases last year.

“That’s the kind of outstanding work we look for,” said Sheriff’s Capt. Mark Flowers. “He went above and beyond.

"He took ownership of the beat he works in and went out there and gathered information and shared that information.”

Such determination helped Porter earn the north precinct’s Deputy of the Year Award for 2009.

The honor is given annually to a sheriff's deputy from the north and south precincts. Recipients are chosen from each precinct’s deputy of the month winners from the past year.

Flowers said Porter doggedly investigated a criminal trespassing report filed last fall in the Shady Shores subdivision.

“He not only went out and took the report and gathered the evidence, he kept going back to it on his own,” Flowers said. “He took what some would say was a simple call and kept running with it.”

The neighborhood is on Porter’s beat. As he gathered information, he sent it to the sheriff’s criminal investigations division, which Flowers said used it to get a search warrant.

The warrant led to arrests in a criminal trespassing and entering auto case. As a result, investigators were able to gather evidence leading to a graffiti case in the far north end of the county.

Flowers said that sharing of information is a product of the sheriff’s Statistical Tracking and Resource Plan, which encourages various divisions to communicate and cooperate.

That cooperation, he said, extends between agencies from the local to the federal level.

Porter began his employment with the sheriff’s office in May 2008.

Sheriff’s Deputy Ben Smith was named the south precinct's top deputy for 2009.

Smith began working with the agency in March 2005 and is part of the south precinct’s SOAR unit.