Police agencies that pay less hire more officers with blemished pasts

On Jan. 4, 2009, an Estill police officer was walking into a convenience store when he instinctively reached for his holster and realized his gun was missing.

He had put it on top of his car while he adjusted his uniform that morning and had driven away without it, the officer later told his supervisors after he failed to find the Glock pistol. The department made him reimburse the small Hampton County police agency for the weapon and later fired him for it and other incidents that added up to substandard performance, show Estill records.

But the officer found work as a police officer twice more, finally landing at the Hardeeville Police Department in 2010 before leaving police work completely in 2014, according to Hardeeville Police Chief Sam Woodward.

It was not a firing that ended his career in the little town that straddles Beaufort and Jasper counties. It was money -- the lure of a salary with a trucking company that he could not attain at his sixth S.C. police agency, according to Woodward. Hardeeville's starting pay for new officers is just $33,600.

It's a similar trend across Jasper County's police agencies. Because they pay police officers less than those in Beaufort County, they say they cannot afford to be as choosy as their neighbors when filling job openings. And they employ more officers who have been fired from other S.C. police agencies, according to an analysis by The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette.

Combined, 8.3 percent of the officers working for the three Jasper County agencies have been fired from a previous S.C. law enforcement agency or resigned while facing discipline -- that's 6 out of 72 police officers, according to data obtained between August and November 2015.

That compares to just four percent of Beaufort and Bluffton police departments' total 99 sworn officers and less than one percent of the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office's 230 sworn officers.

The difference in pay is significant. Consider:

Salaries for area law enforcement forces

Small-screen users: Drag graph to the left to see full extent. Click or tap areas of the chart to see additional information.

'A pickup instead of a Cadillac'

Jasper County Council vice chairman D. Thomas Johnson said low pay is a long-standing problem for Jasper County.

It's not a matter of stinginess or a poor set of priorities, he added, but the plight of a cash-strapped county that cannot afford to pay more.

"We've got a certain tax base and a certain level of traffic, and you spread that around and you do the best you can," he said. "If that means sometimes you have a pickup instead of a Cadillac, that just means that's what you could handle."

Jasper County Sheriff Gregory Jenkins declined to comment.

Yemassee is another example. Four out of seven of its police officers had been previously fired or resigned in lieu of termination, according to the newspapers' analysis. Two of those officers have since left the department by choice.

Yemassee Chief Gregory Alexander said the town's salaries are competitive with other small agencies in nearby Hampton, Estill and Varnville, but not in Beaufort County, where a much larger tax base translates into higher police salaries.

"We're very much aware of it," Alexander said. "I guess we get compared to those agencies, but we can't. Our population here is like 1,000 people, so we can't compare to them."

Alexander says he is still confident in his officers. Of the two previously fired officers still remaining at his department, neither was accused of misconduct in their previous jobs. And neither has been disciplined while at Yemassee

In a perfect world, he said, the department would not need to take a chance on officers with disciplinary records or rely on vague information from chiefs reluctant to speak about past firings.

But Yemassee is not part of that perfect world.

"The (police officers) that have got a clean record are staying where they're at," Alexander said. "They're not changing agencies. I guess they're happy where they're at."

In some agencies, the problem is not only attracting the best, but keeping them. Higher salaries offered elsewhere are a big lure.

Six former Hardeeville cops with clean records are now working for the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office, the Jasper County Sheriff's Office and the Port Royal Police Department, according to the analysis.

A seventh -- touted by Hardeeville's Woodard as a model officer despite a past firing -- was hired by the town of Bluffton, where the starting salary is 10 percent higher than Hardeeville's.

That officer, Jason Rodriguez, had resigned in lieu of termination from the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office after he was caught drinking on a sandbar with a person who was not 21.

Rodriguez had gone boating on the May River and shared a beer with others anchored on the same sandbar, one of whom Rodriguez did not realize was underage, according to records.

A parent of the minor found out and was furious.

On June 4, 2013, he resigned.

"I learned quickly how easy it was to lose everything I have worked for in the past ten years," Rodriguez wrote to the academy in August 2013. "I have tarnished the reputation that I have built for myself with my former employer, former coworkers and the citizens for which I served. Despite the negative impact this has taken upon me, I will use it as ammunition to better myself as a person and an officer."

When hiring the officer, Woodward weighed the cop's "simple judgment error" against his efficiency and his Spanish language skills, which were desperately needed because of the booming Hispanic population.

Without few bilingual officers on the force, the department struggled to get residents to report and cooperate with investigations of violent crimes, drug use and robberies.

In Rodriguez's case, his positive qualities easily won out.

Though Rodriguez left for the Bluffton Police Department in July, Woodward said he has no regrets about the hire.

"Wish I still had him," the chief said.

Woodward has proposed a new salary scale to the city manager that he hopes will make his department more competitive.

"If I'm paying more starting off, maybe I'll get the better pick," he said. "Hardeeville is one of the fastest growing little cities in the state. I want to try to start right now getting up to a decent salary."

Small Town Politics

Small police departments that each employ fewer than 25 officers -- such as Hardeeville, Ridgeland, Yemassee and Port Royal -- face other unique challenges.

With less action, the little towns are often not viewed as places for ambitious officers looking to build careers.

And those who do take police jobs there must be adept jugglers for lower pay. In Yemassee, for example, each employee serves as a patrol officer and detective, responsible for everything from traffic stops to dusting for fingerprints to interrogating suspects, said Alexander, Yemassee's chief.

Also, small departments are more likely to use traditional methods of screening candidates, such as conducting criminal background checks and interviewing references, than consulting academy records, said Matthew Hickman, an officer decertification expert and criminal justice professor at the University of Seattle.

That means some questionable job applicants may not get carefully scrutinized.

Because he doesn't acquire the officers' full files, Alexander didn't realize that one of his officers, Kenneth Simmons, was listed as fired from a past department when he helped screen him for hiring in 2011.

Alexander said he talks to people who aren't listed on a candidate's application, but job screening generally ends there.

"You don't necessarily need (their file) if they're in good standing with the department they're at and you talk to that department and talk to a few more people," Alexander said.

And no amount of screening can prep new officers for small-town politics.

Of the 21 local officers analyzed, four were fired or forced to resign over largely political or personal differences.

One Jasper County deputy had been fired from Hardeeville for talking with a resident about an investigation he believed to be over, angering a former chief.

Another officer, now working for Port Royal, was fired from Colleton County Sheriff's Office over simple differences in methods of accomplishing goals.

"Sometimes like water and oil, you just don't mix," Woodward said.

Reporter Caitlin Turner contributed to this report Follow reporter Rebecca Lurye at twitter.com/IPBG_Rebecca.

Related content:

• Sheriff might not get new Hilton Head deputies in next budget, May 12, 2015
• Port Royal begins budget discussions with police, fire, May 6, 2015
• Beaufort Police budget request 'pretty skinny', May 12, 2015

This story was originally published January 16, 2016 at 7:27 PM with the headline "Police agencies that pay less hire more officers with blemished pasts."