Bluffton Police suddenly suspends DUI unit after winning award for enforcement
The Bluffton Police Department has abruptly suspended its grant-funded DUI enforcement unit, citing a need to reevaluate policies, procedures and personnel.
Capt. Joe Babkiewicz, spokesperson for the Bluffton Police Department, said department officials suspended the unit, composed of one officer, on Monday. The DUI enforcement officer, Cpl. Baker Odom, was reassigned to regular patrol duty in a “lateral move.”
Babkiewicz declined to cite specific circumstances that led to the change.
The move comes 21 days after the Island Packet requested details about every DUI arrest made by the department since January 2017, and on the heels of two high-profile DUI arrests.
Chief Chris Chapmond, grant supervisor Lt. Joe George, and Babkiewicz made the decision, Babkiewicz said.
“We need to reevaluate the process and procedures for it, as well as personnel for it,” he told the Island Packet. He said the department needs to look at the “entire structure” of the unit, including personnel.
“We need to put the right people in the right seats,” he said.
The department was recognized this year by the South Carolina Department of Public Safety for its high number of DUI arrests — 264 — in 2018.
DPS named the Bluffton Police Department Agency of the Year for departments with 26-50 officers. Mount Pleasant Police Department, which has more than 100 officers, was the only department recognized that made more DUI arrests last year, with 293 arrests.
In 2013, the Bluffton Police Department made only 35 DUI arrests, according to department data reported on a 2016 grant application submitted to the state. The uptick in enforcement has coincided with a growth in Bluffton’s population and an influx of state funding.
In 2017, the Bluffton Police Department received a $125,000 grant from the South Carolina Department of Public Safety’s Office of Highway Safety and Justice Programs to add one officer solely dedicated to combating impaired driving.
The grant was renewed in 2018 and 2019, providing approximately $70,000 each year.
The grant-funded officer works only between the hours of 3 p.m. and 6 a.m. and on weekends, according to grant applications submitted to the state. They also present at local schools and organizations about the dangers of impaired driving.
“Bluffton is home to approximately 334 establishments that serve alcohol, including restaurants and bars,” the department wrote on its 2017 application. Nearby Hilton Head Island, “a resort destination with an abundance of alcohol,” and Savannah, Georgia, “a hot spot for night life,” worsen the problem, according to the application.
“These surroundings lead to a high prevalence for impaired driving, where it seems to have become the norm for individuals to drive after imbibing,” wrote the department.
The program’s goals stated on its 2019 grant renewal include the following:
To decrease the number of DUI-related collisions in the Town of Bluffton by 50%, from 16 in 2017 to 8, by the end of the grant period.
To decrease the total number of collisions in the Town of Bluffton by 20%, from 652 in 2017 to 512, by the end of the grant period.
To decrease the total number of traffic fatalities in the Town of Bluffton by 100%, from 5 in 2017 to 0 by the end of the grant
Total traffic collisions have dropped approximately 4.5% across two years, with 623 recorded in 2018, according to the department’s most recent grant application.
“We were meeting our goals,” said Babkiewicz of the DUI unit.
Babkiewicz could not immediately provide data on DUI-related collisions over the grant period.
Recent incidents
Until last week, Cpl. Baker Odom was the department’s DUI enforcement officer. As of Nov. 3, 2019, he had made 57 arrests this year, according to data obtained from the department through a public records request.
Two of Odom’s recent arrests were high profile and controversial. He charged two people in unrelated cases with DUI, despite toxicology and breathalyzer tests showing their consumption was under the legal limit.
One was Beaufort County School District band director Shelby Ledbetter.
In the early-morning hours of Oct. 19, Odom stopped Ledbetter’s vehicle and administered roadside sobriety tests before arresting her. A breath test performed at Bluffton police headquarters indicated a 0.04% blood-alcohol content, below the threshold for consideration as evidence in a DUI case, reported the Packet.
Two months earlier, Odom arrested the 19-year-old son of Bluffton real estate agent Nickey Maxey. The 19-year-old was charged with DUI, but his breathalyzer test recorded a blood-alcohol concentration of zero, according to South Carolina Law Enforcement Division records obtained by the Island Packet.
After an examination, a Bluffton Police Department drug recognition expert, Detective Zatch Pouchprom, wrote in his report, “it is my opinion as a certified DRE, that (the 19-year-old) is under the influence of Cannabis (THC), a Central Nervous System Stimulant and a Central Nervous System Depressant, and is not able to operate a vehicle safely.”
A SLED-administered toxicology report and privately commissioned drug screening conducted that night and reviewed by the Packet indicate no impairing substances were present.
The day after his son’s arrest, Maxey announced his run for Bluffton Town Council, calling local law enforcement “lacking.” Maxey later dropped out of the race.
“I’m all in favor of DUI enforcement,” Maxey said Friday. But celebrating the number of arrests made by a certain officer can be detrimental, he said.
“It clouds these guys. I think it takes away from their judgment. They’re trying to make numbers. It’s like the old quota system. And that’s not police enforcement.”
Both Maxey and Ledbetter’s cases are pending in Bluffton Municipal Court.
This story was originally published November 24, 2019 at 4:00 AM.
%20Cropped.jpg)