It has been some time since the last time this media weighed in on the South Carolina Department of Public Security (SCDPS) – one of the two important law enforcement agencies across the state of Palmetto. For years, SCDPS has been mired in dysfunction under its former director Leroy Smith.
With Smith in charge, morale plunged to unprecedented depths … with proven deleterious impacts on public security.
In the spring of 2017, state lawmakers issued a blunt report claiming that Smith – who was appointed to the position in 2011 by the former governor Nikki Haley – presided over an increasing number of traffic fatalities, loose law enforcement, misappropriation of public funds and double standards in the administration of internal justice.
Allegations of reverse racism (also known as racism) were also made to Smith – although he said in his farewell message last fall that the SCDPS “guaranteed fairness and equity in hiring practices” during his tenure.
A group of fourteen lawmakers wrote a letter to the current governor Henry McMaster in late 2017, informing him that they “did not trust” Smith’s leadership at the agency and its most visible subsidiary, SC Highway Patrol (SCHP) – who continued to suffer from severe shortages under his mandate.
Then … are things better now that Smith is gone?
No way.
In the past few weeks, we have been peppered with messages from our network of soldiers indicating that the SCHP is once again “backing down”. This morale is once again in decline. And that public security is once again being threatened as a result.
One reason? Ticket quotas … and the pressure being applied to soldiers to face them.
Specifically, the soldiers tell us that they are being pressured once again to issue more speeding tickets and seat belt violations to Palmetto State drivers – part of an ongoing inspection blitz aimed at addressing an increase road fatalities in 2020.
Last year should have seen a decline in traffic deaths due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and its subsequent social closures – resulting in sharp declines in the miles of vehicles driven on Palmetto state roads. But that didn’t happen …
We last addressed the quota issue in May 2019, criticizing the SCDPS for prioritizing speeding and seat belt quotes over more serious traffic violations.
“They don’t want to do a real inspection,” said a police officer at the time. “They want to give seat belt tickets to moms who play football.”
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“I’m not going to worry about the seat belt when a guy passes me smoking meth,” said another police officer. “But still, they are getting it into our heads – seat belts, seat belts, seat belts. “
The repression of the seat belt is part of the unsuccessful road safety campaign “Target Zero” of the SCDPS – which received dedicated funding flows from the taxpayer in connection with the so-called “inspection blitzes”.
Anyway, in our 2019 report we published some internal SCHP documents that document its quota system. One such document was an “activity report” posted at the headquarters of SCHP Troop 3 – which includes Anderson, Greenville, Oconee, Pickens and Spartanburg counties in the interior of Palmetto state.
The report revealed a clear quota system – although the SCDPS has repeatedly denied the use of quotas.
This week, we received another internal document that appears to indicate that the quota system is alive and well at the agency – and was increasing before the holiday season.
In addition to requiring weekly reports for seat belt quotes and other “contacts” – that is, “tickets and notices” – the memo of November 12, 2020 instructed SCDPS sergeants to “give a brief synopsis of their plans to improve performance “.
Take a look …
(Click to view)
Highway Patrol-Quotas
(Via: Provided)
“No matter how much you try to rotate, this is a quota,” said the source who provided us with the document. “Especially when we receive emails and phone calls, if you don’t reach the magic numbers.”
“We are understaffed, but we are harassed weekly,” added the source, citing the continuing shortage of soldiers.
What a pity …
We hoped that the recent change in leadership at SCDPS had been accompanied by a renewed focus on the agency’s core mission – public security. We also hoped that this had caused a long-awaited shift in policing priorities – and the appropriation of scarce resources for those priorities.
As we stated a long time ago, law enforcement is a central defining function of government – and it must be financed in proportion to the essential role it plays in protecting life, freedom and property.
This is not happening in South Carolina … and the money being allocated to the task is clearly being misused.
This news medium contacted the SCDPS to obtain their opinion on all of this, but so far we have not received a response from the agency. Unfortunately, SCDPS has refused to respond to us for years – however, we will continue to offer its leaders our microphone for the purpose of addressing their critics.
-FITSNews
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