Beaufort County police weigh cost of increased patrols against decrease in crime

A rash of business burglaries in Bluffton and on Hilton Head Island prompted the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office to create a team to crack down on the trend by saturating areas that were experiencing break-ins. The team was made up of about a dozen off-duty officers who were on the streets overnight every day for 20 days, beginning in plainclothes and ending up in marked patrol cars, Capt. Toby McSwain said.

As a result, the team made some arrests and generated some leads, both related and unrelated to the string of burglaries. They also drove down the number of property crimes in the fourth quarter as compared to the same period last year.

The burglary team and others like it are effective, McSwain said, but they must be weighed against the cost — time-and-a-half pay for deputies who would otherwise be off-duty.

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