Endorsed by current sheriff, Seifert hopes to lead Beaufort County police into new era
Boasting 20 years of law enforcement experience and the endorsement of the retiring seven-term sheriff, Doug Seifert is running to lead the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office on a platform of improving hiring efforts, better communicating with residents and building a coalition with other local leaders.
“I have worked on the road north of the Broad and south of the Broad; I went and talked to the men and women that I work with, and I listened to (their feedback),” Seifert told The Island Packet in a sit-down interview last week. “It’s all small stuff that I see, and it gave me more of an understanding about how everything worked.”
Seifert had his start in civic service as a town councilman for North Bend, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, before moving to South Carolina and joining the sheriff’s office in 2006 as a patrol deputy.
“It was great to understand how the government works,” Seifert said of his time on the Ohio town council. “It gives you a sense of gratification because you’re all working as a team to make your community better — so that drive has always been in me.”
Seifert joined BCSO’s investigations team in the mid 2010s, according to his campaign website. He first worked as a supervisor in 2014 when he was promoted to sergeant, later becoming a staff sergeant and master sergeant.
He rose the ranks to lieutenant of the department’s Southern Enforcement Division just before resigning to begin his campaign in mid-March, becoming the first candidate to join the race.
Asked how his leadership of the sheriff’s office would differ from Tanner’s, Seifert said he hoped to focus more on community engagement, especially north of the Broad River. His campaign website includes a proposal for regular town halls and “community listening sessions” across the county.
“The biggest thing is St. Helena. I want to get a substation in there,” Seifert said. “I’m going to go into elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, you want to hit festivals ... just being seen and talking to them, and being that role model for them.”
The Republican primary election on June 9 will test whether voters believe the county is due for a change in law enforcement leadership. Seifert’s opponent, 61-year-old JoJo Woodward, has built his campaign around the claim that Beaufort County is in dire need of a leadership change. Seifert led by 20 percentage points in a mid-May straw poll conducted by the Beaufort County Republican Party, in which 187 ballots were counted.
‘I got to get the salaries up’
Both candidates have made Beaufort County’s traffic issues a large part of their campaigns, proposing a dedicated traffic unit with deputies who focus largely on roadway violations.
Seifert also plans to address traffic as a long-term issue, he said, using his experience in town council to work closely with county council and other local officials in “trying to slow the growth down.”
“The influx of residents coming in from Jasper County — it’s just begun, and that’s a concern,” he said. “How do you prepare (traffic infrastructure) for five, 15, 20 years from here?”
When asked, Seifert said he wouldn’t support a statehouse bill recently introduced by Bluffton legislators that would allow local governments to install red light cameras and issue fines to violators.
“That’s against the (South Carolina) constitution,” Seifert said. “I’m not going through with that if it’s against the constitution.”
On the issue of deputy vacancies, Seifert said “I got to get the salaries up” for deputies at the sheriff’s office. A best-case scenario would be raising the starting salary from $60,000 to $70,000, he said.
“You got to separate yourself to get people to come to the agency, because law enforcement has suffered significantly after COVID across the United States,” Seifert said.
If elected, Seifert would “come straight to the county council” with an agenda for raising the starting salary, including information about competitive wages at other departments and the cost of living in the Hilton Head area.
BCSO already has several benefits to aid in the hiring and retention of deputies, Seifert said, like take-home patrol vehicles and rent discounts at some local apartment complexes. Seifert said he would work with local housing officials to secure more of those discounts to give deputies more options across Beaufort County.
Seifert did not say where the money for the salary increase would come from, telling The Island Packet “I have to look at it when I get in office and reevaluate the finances and see what the actual budget is.”
Does Seifert support 287(g) contract with ICE?
Woodward and Seifert both expressed support for BCSO’s 287(g) contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which Tanner signed last summer despite pushback from some community members.
The 287(g) program, which has exploded in popularity under President Donald Trump’s second term, forms a partnership between the sheriff’s office and ICE and allows county deputies to enforce federal immigration law. That contract was the basis for Beaufort County deputies’ participation in an ICE operation in Bluffton last week, where immigration officers arrested more than 15 residents as they targeted people who had allegedly violated deportation orders.
Seifert said the agency’s 287(g) contract keeps local police in the know about when federal agents are planning operations in Beaufort County, and that he’d “rather be sitting at the table than not at the table.”
His campaign’s language about immigration enforcement has been less stern than that of Woodward, who said the program made local communities safer by allowing deputies to “identify, process and detain dangerous criminal immigrants.”
“If it’s a felony arrest warrant or what have you, it doesn’t matter what race or sex they are — we’re gonna get you,” Seifert said, but adding he does not support “grabbing and detaining” someone who is “working hard.”
Seifert’s plans for scammers
Seifert has a plan to fight the network of scammers who target the wallets of Beaufort County residents, especially local seniors, to the tune of thousands of dollars.
“These (scammers) are hard to track down ... especially when they’re in different countries,” Seifert said. “And that’s a big thing, educating the public, because one scam is one scam — there’s other ones that they create as well, so you have to stay above that in the training on our end; it’s got to be up-to-date as well.”
He plans to create a dedicated phone line and online chat for victims of fraud in Beaufort County, as well as an online reporting tool for those who prefer to communicate digitally. As part of BCSO’s existing anti-scam campaigns, Seifert hopes to issue clearer guidance about how to spot fraud tactics and how residents should respond when they suspect they’re being targeted.
New technologies and the use of cryptocurrency have made the battle against scammers even more difficult for law enforcement, Seifert said, which is why he values ongoing training — “especially with federal, state and local authorities, that we’re on the same page and working with one another.”
Building trust in police: ‘You got to go where they go’
Taking advantage of his connections within the surrounding community, Seifert hopes to meet once a month with local police chiefs, other county sheriffs and other law enforcement leaders.
“We actually solve a lot of crimes that way when we network with Jasper County, Hardeeville,” Seifert said. “Other officers might notice someone who’s in your area, and they actually can solve your crimes and we solve theirs.”
Asked about his plans to increase trust in the sheriff’s office — especially in northern Beaufort County, where a lack of witness cooperation in October’s mass shooting on St. Helena highlighted the regular issue of residents not wanting to speak with deputies — Seifert said he would continue what he’s already doing.
“You got to go where they go,” Seifert said. “As a matter of fact, I’ve been doing that in Beaufort County ... going to their churches, their events — not campaigning, being who I am. And when they know that trust, then they realize that I’m out there for the right reason.”
Even if some residents might be distrustful of police as a whole, Seifert said, establishing trust with officers as individuals often encourages witnesses to approach known deputies and “talk to them privately, which can result in solving a case.”
Addressing voters’ concerns
Woodward, who previously worked above Seifert as a captain, has criticized his opponent for what he describes as a lack of sufficient command experience. More specifically, Woodward called into question Seifert’s promotion to lieutenant in early March — mere days before Seifert resigned from the sheriff’s office to launch his campaign.
In response, Seifert said that even before his official promotion, he had already assumed the responsibilities of lieutenant due to a colleague retiring and leaving a vacancy.
“You’re preparing the road units, which would be in the enforcement side, you’re doing payrolls, you’re also doing more (evaluations), things like that,” Seifert said when asked to describe the additional duties he took on. “That brings on a lot more than what I was used to as a master sergeant in investigations, so I was already prepared through that.”
Critics of Seifert have also cited a video that appeared to show Seifert in civilian clothes in the aftermath of the September incident on Hilton Head’s Squiresgate Road, in which former deputy William Squires was suspended, fired and later arrested for allegedly pointing his service weapon at three teenagers who he thought were armed.
In a social media statement posted in mid-May, Seifert said the rumors were “desperate attempts to tarnish my reputation” and clarified that he did not violate departmental policy and was not facing any criminal investigations or civil lawsuits.
“My wife ended up getting a phone call, and I went over to render aid ... called a supervisor, and stayed on scene until it was over,” Seifert said, adding that he was not with Squires prior to the incident. “I also gave statements to South Carolina Law Enforcement Division ... Obviously, it’s in civil and criminal litigation, and that’s where it has to stay. I have to respect the victims in the case ... I have to do that and follow the process.”
Answering a question about his May campaign video stating that Beaufort County was safe — which sparked criticism from Woodward and some residents — Seifert maintained his stance that national data shows the county has less crime than the national average.
Of course, Seifert said, he’ll work to make the county safer: “My job is to keep Beaufort County the safest county in the state of South Carolina.” Running to become sheriff was a “no-brainer,” according to Seifert, because of the hardworking men and women at the sheriff’s office whom he interacts with daily. Now, he hopes to lead that team — over 200 sworn deputies and about 100 civilian personnel.
“Being here, and having the connection with the men and women every single day that I do — because I’m in connection with Beaufort County — I can walk right into the sheriff’s office and I can run that agency as a sheriff.”
