City Manager
Crime counts among the most serious issues facing any community. It hurts the people who live there, it threatens their property and it stands as one of the starkest examples of how our society is imperfect. The City of Hartsville takes the crime in our community very seriously, and whenever it does happen, we are always standing up against it.
In 2011, the last year of compiled data, the FBI counted 32 officers serving Hartsville, a number which currently stands at 36, not counting three part-time officers and 2 reserve officers. In that 2011 data, Hartsville stands out as having the highest number of officers for any South Carolina municipality with a population less than 8,000, and more officers than several larger cities as well.
Our officers are always busy keeping the city safe. In 2012, the Hartsville Police Department responded to 11,930 calls for service, an average of more than 32 a day, and filed 3,594 reports. This is a decrease in the calls for service over the previous five years – the number stood at nearly 15,000 in 2008, with more than 5,000 reports written – but many of the crime indicators have been dropping in the same period. Aggravated assault has trended downward, from 137 cases in 2008 to 55 in 2012. Burglaries fell in the same period from 258 to 170. Robberies declined from 39 in 2009 to 27 last year.
The Hartsville Police Department’s work isn’t all patrol and investigation, however; so much of it is about connecting with our residents. Some of this outreach is easy to see, like our officers’ appearance at the recent National Night Out, or their organization of a donation drive to bring electric fans to residents in need. Other efforts are more subtle. Using a S.C. Department of Commerce Community Development Block Grant, the City has bought a house for an officer’s residence in the historic Oakdale neighborhood as one of the security improvements for that community. We are now looking at options for placing an officer in another target neighborhood as well.
We want very much to be a part of the solution for crime, but the entire solution requires the contributions of everyone – all organizations and all residents. Hartsville always needs neighborhood watches, and we always need residents letting the City know exactly what kind of problems and concerns they have, and reporting any crimes as they happen.
Hartsville is patrolled by a very dedicated law enforcement agency around the clock. I’ve seen Chief James Hudson, our investigators and our officers solve crimes and respond to all kinds of dangerous situations too many times to not feel pride in their tireless efforts. The fight against crime will always be an ongoing process, but we’re not about to slow down in our response.
