Has the time come to let the voters of Horry County decide who should lead the law enforcement efforts in the county?
A move to merge the sheriff鈥檚 department and the Horry County Police Department, supported by Horry County Sheriff Phillip Thompson, arose in 2016 when the county police department was plagued with a series of incidents involving illegal and questionable activities by some county police officers.
The effort to get the county council to put the measure on a countywide referendum was declared 鈥渄ead in the water鈥 before voters could get a say.
And now, the department is under a microscope again with national attention drawn to a recent situation involving a deadly road rage shooting near Loris, in which no charges were filed.
One former deputy chief resigned in March and is under investigation by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division聽in connection with the road rage shooting. A sergeant was fired April 30 after an ongoing internal affairs investigation that found he violated HCPD policies during that same shooting investigation.
Today, Horry County is the only one of the 46 counties in South Carolina that still has a separate county police force. Charleston County was the last to merge its law enforcement department in 1991.
It all comes down to trust and transparency.
If any department in the county needs the trust of those it serves, it is law enforcement.
This is not a jab at the new county police chief who has been on the job for just a few months. But rather, it鈥檚 an overall look at the history of the department and most importantly, the perception of the department by the people they serve.
It is also not an across-the-board criticism of the hundreds of officers and staff in the county police department who put their lives on the line every day.
Would having the leadership of the county law enforcement subject to voters鈥 scrutiny improve trust among the citizens of Horry County?
In 1959, the local legislative delegation made the move to separate a new county police force from the county sheriff鈥檚 office. These were the days before 鈥渉ome rule,鈥 which established local county governments.
When 鈥渉ome rule鈥 came in during the 鈥70s, the control over the county police was moved to the auspices of the county administrator, and indirectly the county council. Unlike the county sheriff, which is a constitutional office and elected by the voters of the county, this took the direct administration of the department out of the voters鈥 hands.
Both departments are blessed with hundreds of professionally trained officers.
The question comes down to how the people of Horry County want the department or departments that protect them to be run.
The taxpayers ultimately pay for this protection. They should be allowed to decide who runs the show.
If a merger is chosen, there is no reason that the officers of both departments can鈥檛 continue in their positions.
If voters choose the status quo, then trust must be improved through greater transparency for everyone鈥檚 sake. There are currently too many layers in the county department鈥檚 operation where transparency is clouded.
If a merger is chosen, which is not currently being proposed, then efforts should be made to retain the many officers and staff within the county department who have developed expertise in areas of criminal justice.
We are not currently advocating either avenue. We just want honest, capable leadership that can be trusted, either through the hiring process or the ballot box.
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