Bluffton police chief defends retention efforts despite 16 officers’ departures
Answering criticism about the Bluffton Police Department’s turnover — one-fourth of the department’s officers have left in the 13 months since Chief Stephenie Price was hired — the chief last week defended her efforts at retention and pointed to a national climate of law enforcement hardship.
But when pressed for specifics Thursday night during the department’s citizens advisory committee meeting, Price said she did not have up-to-date numbers of officers who had left Bluffton for jobs at other police departments.
At least 16 sworn officers have left the Bluffton Police Department since Price started in October 2020, according to a review by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.
That’s a little over one quarter of the 61-officer department. The newspapers confirmed the resignations through internal emails, resignation letters, S.C. Criminal Justice Academy files, interviews, Facebook posts and Linkedin profiles. At least six went to work for other departments, most to Hardeeville.
Price has repeatedly said the problems with retention in her department are due to a national trend of law enforcement officers leaving the profession or retiring. Departments across the country are reporting increases in retirements and slowing of hiring after a year of mass protests, calls for police reform and COVID-19.
In a letter sent to Bluffton town officials in May, however, one former officer cited toxic leadership, a lack of transparency, and arbitrary reasoning for who is demoted and promoted within the department.
At Thursday’s meeting, Price presented an array of initiatives, such as free gym memberships, a sabbatical program, “flex time,” and statewide recruiting, to stem the exodus of officers and hire new ones. Price said she’s worked with the town manager, polled her officers, and done research on the private sector to come up with programs to keep officers.
“Hiring and recruiting and retaining right now is a big issue within law enforcement,” Price said Thursday. “So what we’ve done is really taken an innovative approach to how we’re going to hire and retain our folks.”
Where are officers going?
At Thursday’s meeting, Price was asked for numbers on how many officers have left and whether they went to work for another law enforcement agency or the private sector. She said she did not have those current numbers.
Committee member Tabor Vaux said the group had asked for them at a prior meeting.
“How about hired as well? Just because people have left doesn’t mean we haven’t hired a bunch,” Price said.
Price told the committee the department has 11 vacancies now, but two have been hired to start in December and January, and two were recently added in the July budget, bringing the open positions to seven. Price said that’s close to the six vacancies she inherited from the department when she started in October 2020.
In The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette’s review, of the 16 officers who left, six went to work for other police departments, and five of those six went to work for the Hardeeville Police Department, a department one county over.
Officers leaving to work for a neighboring department runs counter to the narrative that disenchanted officers are quitting the profession.
One officer who left, Cody Kirkman, resigned in May after spending a year on paid leave while the FBI investigated a complaint that he used unlawful force during a 2017 traffic stop.
At least five of the officers who left, including Kirkman, have entered the private sector.
Retention
Price presented several programs the department was undertaking to recruit officers and stop current ones from leaving.
They include:
▪ 60 hours of “flex time” for employees, allowing officers to take time for themselves, work out, or handle pressing chores during working hours (things like a sick child, “cable guy” appointment, according to Price).
▪ Free gym membership for officers.
▪ Sabbatical program. On each fifth year of employment, the town will provide two extra weeks of paid time off to officers who already have two weeks saved up. Price said this includes a “tenure bonus” of $1,000.
▪ Employee referral program of $250 for the day a referred officer is hired and $500 for the day that officer completes field training.
▪ Bi-annual family carnival and cookout for families of Bluffton police officers.
▪ Statewide recruiting campaigns over radio and social media.
▪ Hiring fairs across South Carolina.
▪ Reduced amount of time “to go from A to B in the steps of hiring.”
▪ Spanish classes for officers.
Price said currently the department has six applicants in various stages of the hiring process.
William “Bill” O’Toole, a committee member who served as an acting police chief in Maryland, said the past year has been tough on the country and especially police.
“I think a lot of the officers felt as a profession they were unfairly painted in a very negative way,” O’Toole said. “Hopefully they’ll hear the word that Bluffton is a good place for police and a community that supports them.”
Concerns?
According to town emails obtained by the newspapers, Bluffton Mayor Lisa Sulka has privately expressed concerns about the resignations of officers.
In May, Sulka sent an email to town officials, including Price, to meet with the chief after the resignation of officer Peter James.
“This is very concerning to me and feel we need to discuss quickly,” Sulka wrote.
“He is one of the best and I am under the impression others are looking elsewhere,” she said. “The culture of our [department] seems to be changing and I know council doesn’t want that to happen.”
After that email, Price said she met with Sulka and town officials to talk about new recruiting initiatives and also nationwide resignations of police.
But after an email was sent informing officials of the resignation of Officer Thomas Lang on Aug. 6, Sulka sent a terse email to Stephen Steese, Bluffton’s town manager of over five months.
“Please get a handle on this,” Sulka wrote.
