Local Radar

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Ridge Spring: Do Police and peace go hand in hand?

web posted August 22, 2006

RIDGE SPRING – The three councilmen who favor it and the residents who support their actions claim that the elimination of the Ridge Spring Police Department will save the community money and will be "in the best interest of the taxpayers and citizens of the Town of Ridge Spring.”  But those claims may be way off the mark.

A public hearing will be held on the matter at 7 pm on Monday, August 28, in the Civic Center on west Main Street.

A compilation of statistics available from the SC Budget and Control Board, Office of Research and Statistics, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and the South Carolina Department of Public Safety show that the Ridge Spring Police Department seems to do its job very well.

According to the latest SLED statistics available, Ridge Spring had the lowest index crime rate among the comparably sized municipalities (800-900) reporting in South Carolina in 2004.  Those stats also indicate that the index crime rate in Ridge Spring dropped to less than half from 2003 to 2004.

Index crimes tracked by SLED include murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, breaking and entering, larceny and motor vehicle theft.

The migrant work force greatly increases the number of people in and around Ridge Spring from late March until early September.  But it is the number of students, administration and staff at Ridge Spring-Monetta elementary and middle schools present from August to June each year that more than doubles Ridge Spring’s daytime population.

Over a three-year period, the Ridge Spring Police Department’s Student Resource Officer(s) working at those schools provided numerous services to students in grades 6 through 8 on a budget of less than $125,000.  In comparison, two officers in two schools within the target area provided nearly identical services to the same number of students but with a budget of more than $1 million.

During 2004, Ridge Spring - population 823 - had a total of eight index crimes committed. Seven of those offenses were larceny and breaking and entering.  West Pelzer in Anderson County, with a population of 879, had the second lowest crime rate during 2004 with 13 crimes committed.

Both Yamasee in Hampton County and North, located in Orangeburg County, had 18 index crimes in 2004.

Wagener, which has a population of 863, had a total of 136 crimes committed from 2003 to 2004.  And the municipality, located approximately 24 miles southeast of Ridge Spring, in Aiken County, saw its total index crime rate rise from 54 to 81 during the two-year period. Those increases were in aggravated assaults, larcenies, motor vehicle thefts and breaking and entering.

SLED did not list individual index crime rates for Norris (847) in Pickens County and Quinby (842) in Florence County.

There were 58 index crimes reported in Ridge Spring in 1998, the majority of which were larcenies, followed closely by aggravated assaults.  There also were two robberies.

But during six months in 1999 and five months of 2000, there was only one index crime reported for each period.  There are no SLED records available for 2001, but in 2002 the rate jumped to 27, with larcenies accounting for the major increase.  In 2003, the index crime rate dropped to 17 - again with larcenies topping the list, but reduced by half.

Overall, with three law enforcement departments reporting, Saluda County’s index crime rate total decreased from 411 to 398 from 2003 to 2004 amongst its 19,043-plus/minus residents.  Aggravated assault and larcenies were the offenses committed most often throughout the 452 square-mile county.

For the seven crimes listed above, the three departments had an arrest rate of 41.5* and an index crime clearance rate of 19 percent**.  There were 711 arrests overall in Saluda County during 2004, with the majority of the crimes committed being violations of drug and liquor laws and those classified as “other".

From 1998 to the first half of 2006, there have been at least six police chiefs in Ridge Spring, five of which worked under the last administration (1994-2004).  In addition to the chief, the department – at times - has been comprised of one or two additional officers.

Throughout the reporting period, some of the Ridge Spring officers have pulled double duty, serving as the SRO at RS-M Elementary/Middle and working as a regular town patrol officer after school hours and on weekends.

Because of its unique situation – RS-M middle and elementary schools are part of the Area 4, Aiken County School District, but located within the town limits of Ridge Spring in Saluda County – the Aiken County Board of Education contracted with the town of Ridge Spring to provide an SRO.

According to the RS-M schools’ website there are approximately 760 students in grades K4 through 8. The majority of those students are from Saluda and Aiken counties but some live in Edgefield County.  There also are 52 teachers, three administrators, two guidance counselors, and 25 staff members at the schools.

Between July 2003 and March 2006, the Ridge Spring SRO(s) made one arrest, held 115 conferences, gave 21 students community service as an alternative to arrest or suspension and made five referrals to the SC Department of Social Services rather than to the SC Department of Juvenile Justice.

While there were no SRO's listed by SCDPS specifically for any school in Quinby,  two of Florence County’s middle schools have a total of 780 students.  From July 2002 until March 2005, those schools received a total SRO budget of $1,057,222. Two resource officers provided 36 classes, made eight arrests, held 100 conferences and made seven referrals.


Editor’s note:

*The SLED statistics were computed based on county crime rates per 10,000 population, with county population projections based upon a state population of 4, 177,000 for 2004, and rounded to the nearest hundred.

 **And, according to the report, “for crime reporting purposes, an index crime is cleared when a law enforcement agency has identified and located the offender and there is enough evidence to charge him. The arrest of one person can clear several crimes, or several persons may be arrested in clearing one crime. Clearances are recorded in exceptional circumstances when some element beyond law enforcement control precludes the arrest of the offender.”

 

 

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