Sheriff’s Office dismisses Bluffton leader’s racial profiling claim. Watch the video
When a Bluffton Town Council member’s husband was pulled over by police in January, he filed a complaint with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office for racial profiling.
The Sheriff’s Office conducted an investigation into the complaint and found no wrongdoing by the deputy involved.
According to Sheriff’s Office documents obtained by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette, the investigation said the allegation was “totally meritless.”
However, Bluffton Town Council member Bridgette Frazier and her husband, Bluffton resident Warren Patterson, say the complaint had less to do with the deputy’s behavior during the stop and more with what prompted the stop in the first place.
The letter dismissing Patterson’s misconduct complaint against Sheriff’s Office deputy Christopher Partridge says an investigation found no policy or procedure violations by the officer. The letter, addressed to Patterson on Tuesday, states the investigation is closed.
“I have no issue complying with law enforcement. My issue is the lack of communication on why my vehicle was searched, why I was asked if my car was stolen, etc,” Patterson’s Jan. 14 complaint said. “This line of questioning was unnerving and seemed [targeted] based on my race and the vehicle I was driving.” Patterson, who is black, was driving a BMW.
The internal investigation’s conclusion determined the complaint was unfounded. “Mr. Patterson was stopped due to knowingly operating a vehicle without a proper temporary tag, long after the 45 day grace period to register that vehicle expired,” the investigation found.
Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Maj. Bob Bromage said the traffic stop was warranted and an investigation of Patterson’s registration found the tag had expired and “the driver was issued a warning in lieu of a ticket.”
On Jan. 13, just after Partridge issued Patterson a warning for the expired tag, Frazier posted a Facebook Live video about the traffic stop, saying that her husband was racially targeted by the deputy. The video has almost 2,000 views, more than 100 reactions and sparked dozens of comments sympathetic to Frazier and Patterson.
The investigative report conducted by Sheriff’s Office Lt. Brian Baird said Frazier’s video was not an accurate description of the traffic stop.
“In this video, Ms. Frazier is not truthful about what happened during the traffic stop,” Baird wrote in his report. “She makes several claims and states several things happened that never happened during the traffic stop. Ms. Frazier grossly exaggerates the length of the stop in her posting.”
When told about Baird’s report, Frazier said “there was nothing stated in the [Facebook] video that’s incorrect or what can be considered to be false.”
“It was what warranted the stop in the first place,” Frazier said, adding that she also did not agree with the officer’s line of questioning during the stop.
Subconscious profiling is common, she said, and something everyone can work on.
Baird’s investigative report states that Patterson’s race did not play a factor in the traffic stop.
In his report, Baird says that he told Frazier, “when it comes to Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office I believe [racial profiling] doesn’t exist.”
