Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office hopes to bulk up Hilton Head staff

The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office is unlikely to receive enough money for a new undercover unit to patrol Hilton Head Island, as it requested at Town Council’s first fiscal year 2017 budget workshop on Tuesday night.

The department sought four new plainclothes deputies who would have driven unmarked patrol cars, as well as one new investigator and $58,000 worth of new radar equipment, requests that would have increased the Sheriff’s Office’s budget to about $3.94 million next year, up from about $3.23 million in FY 2016, including stipends for officers to live on the island.

Town Council balked at the $700,000 request, which comes ahead of an independent performance review of the town’s contract with the Sheriff’s Office. After Mayor David Bennett and several council members asking for justification of the expenses, they ultimately agreed to place a portion of the funds in reserves until after experts finish analyzing the Sheriff’s Office’s performance over the last year.

The town directed staff to see if the Sheriff’s Office has money in its current budget for the radar equipment and to place about $289,000 in reserves for next year, enough to hire two new officers. About 45 percent of that money came from the department’s own proposed savings for FY 2017.

“We’ve asked for a study of the Sheriff’s Office’s performance,” Bennett said. “Let’s get that study and make decisions based on that.”

At least one council member disagreed. Councilman Marc Grant said he wanted to approve funding two of the new positions in case they’re needed over the summer, noting the island saw several homicides in the past year: Dominique Williams was killed at Coligny Beach in July, Rhashard Spikes near the Oaks apartments in August, Charles Miller on Snider Walk in October and Darnell Williams near the Haig Point embarkation in February.

If there’s an uptick in crime this summer, “Lives are going to be at stake, and I don’t want that on my head,” Grant said. “We know we had two deaths last (summer). We know people are asking for police officers to walk the streets more.”

Bennett, however, maintained that the Sheriff’s Office performance review is necessary to determine whether additional staff are needed.

“I agree we need to make sure public safety is paramount in all that we’re doing, and it’s a tragedy we had anyone die in our community due to violence,” Bennett said. “But I’m not certain sitting here today that if we had 10 or 20 or 30 additional patrolmen that those deaths would have been avoided.”

Lt. Col. Allen Horton, who presented the request, said the Sheriff’s Office would manage with whatever Town Council was willing to provide. However, he said the department’s needs are clear based on the caseload of its investigators — the unit has been assigned 200 cases so far this year — and the success of the department’s four-person special enforcement unit, which Horton said makes about one quarter of the arrests on Hilton Head Island.

A second special enforcement unit, undercover in unmarked patrol cars, would go far in preventing crimes and preventing underage drinking and over-drinking at the bars, he said.

If granted only enough money for two new patrol officers, the Sheriff’s Office would simply add them to its existing special enforcement unit, which also looks out for speeders and DUIs in hotspot areas, Horton said.

“Any additional personnel in the unit would be beneficial to traffic enforcement,” he said.

The town will discuss the budget again at a regular board meeting and public hearing June 7, and again if necessary June 14. A final reading of the budget is scheduled for June 21.

This story was originally published May 10, 2016 at 7:16 PM with the headline "Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office hopes to bulk up Hilton Head staff."