— Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker is ending a program in which deputies check daily on dozens of senior citizens.

Participants in the Citizens Well-Check program live alone and don't have anyone to check on them, so they receive an automated call from the sheriff's office at 3 p.m. every day. If no one answers, there is a follow-up call and then a call to a family member. If there's still no contact, a deputy is dispatched to check on the person.

"If you move to another county, you don't have as many relatives around. I don't have a big family to start with," 84-year-old Robin Ingram said.

Baker said Tuesday that he was elected last fall because he promised to serve all of Wake County, and Citizens Well-Check serves only a small fraction of local seniors.

"At the end of the day, the bigger picture here is serving all of Wake County and not just a handful of people," he said.

One hundred people are enrolled in the program, but there is a waiting list to join.

Ingram said she was so upset to hear the program would end on July 1 that she called Baker to complain.

"His argument is, if you can't do it for everybody, don't do it at all, which to me is a stupid argument," she said.

Baker couldn't say how much time or manpower is spent on the program.

"If someone is concerned about a member of their family who lives in this county, they can call us, and we will dispatch the closest car," he said. "We will go there and check on their loved one."

But Ingram said she worries about potential problems, noting that she doesn't get out much and her two sons live out of state.

"This way [without the daily check], I could be dead for a week, and no one would know," she said.

Former Sheriff Donnie Harrison started Citizens Well-Check in 2005 and called it one of his proudest accomplishments when he left office last year.

Harrison started it after his mother's death. His father was living alone, and he wanted to provide a resource for him and other Wake County seniors to remain in their own homes as they aged.

He said Tuesday he was disappointed by the decision to end it.