Corruption allegations plague Horry police. Will public have a say in fixing it?

From lawsuits to corruption allegations, the Horry County Police Department has been mired in controversy in recent years.

Plagued by serious accusations surrounding conduct, allegations against the HCPD has sparked discussions about eliminating the department entirely, conversations that have even entered an Horry County Council meeting. Will the county move to fold HCPD into the Horry County Sheriff’s Department?

Last week, a lawsuit brought new allegations against the county, deputy county administrator Renee Hardwick, HCPD, Police Chief Kris Leonhardt, former Deputy Chief Lance Winburn and Capt. Brandon Lee.

Capt. Danny Furr alleges he faced systemic retaliation for speaking up against corruption and institutional abuse within the department. Furr, who served on HCPD for 27 years, described department leadership as needing “sweeping changes,” saying “there is no transparency.”

“The culture has to change … It is a culture. It’s an issue. It’s widespread … I think it’s too widespread now for a quick fix. I think the executive command structure itself is broken,” Furr said.

Stuart Axelrod, one of the attorneys representing Furr, as well as a former HCPD officer and a former Horry County spokesperson in another suit against the department and the county, went further. Axelrod called for Leonhardt’s retirement, the appointment of Sheriff Phillip Thompson as interim HCPD chief and a referendum for residents to vote on merging the two agencies.

“Over the last few years, it’s been obvious, I believe, to everyone, that the Horry County Police Department is very good at only one thing, and that’s hiding the truth,” Axelrod said. “So maybe it’s time for the Horry County Sheriff’s Department to assume control of all law enforcement bodies. Maybe it’s time to abolish the Horry County Police Department once and for all.”

Will Horry County residents be able to vote on a law enforcement merger?

Across South Carolina’s 46 counties, Horry County is the only one to have both a sheriff’s office and a police department, which was formed under Act 21 of 1959. Although a bill which would make the sheriff’s office the primary law enforcement agency was introduced, both departments remain.

The possibility to combine the two agencies was a public input matter at Horry County Council’s April 21 meeting, where members of the public spoke in favor of a referendum allowing residents to vote on the union.

Council hasn’t moved forward with such a referendum, but Public Safety Committee Chairman Danny Hardee said he was in the process of forming an independent committee that would look into a potential vote, as well as HCPD policies and issues.

Hardee said he would support a referendum for Horry County voters “once they know what they’re voting on,” an idea which others on county council have echoed. Questions about logistics, timelines, employment changes and costs remain.

Other council members told The Sun News it was too early to say whether they’d support a potential referendum.

Councilman Gary Loftus, who also serves on the Public Safety Committee, said there were, “pluses and minuses on everything,” and Councilman Tyler Servant said Council is still conducting its due diligence.

“It’s really hard for us to make a decision on anything right now with limited knowledge that we have as it relates to the merge of the two departments … I think it’s all about transparency and accountability, and that doesn’t matter if it’s public safety or finance or administration or public works or storm water infrastructure, that’s a priority for all of Council,” said Servant.

Councilman Bill Howard said he would have to “look at all the facts first” concerning benefits to the public and costs, but that he didn’t think the matter would make it to a public referendum.

For his part, Councilman Michael Masciarelli refused to say whether he would support a referendum, saying he didn’t believe the matter would go before council again.

Regardless of whether a referendum makes it to the ballot, the discussions predate the latest lawsuit and come after HCPD has been embroiled in a string of high-profile controversies, legal fights and serious accusations, just in the last few years.

Scott Spivey’s shooting death

Allegations of HCPD misconduct received national attention after the controversial death of 33-year-old Scott Spivey, who died in a roadside shootout near Longs in September 2023.

In the years since, at least five HCPD officers have been accused of misconduct in the investigation, including allegedly giving one of the shooters preferential treatment and allegedly mishandling evidence. One of the five, former Deputy Chief Brandon Strickland, was forced to resign in March 2026 due to alleged misconduct.

Spivey’s sister, Jennifer Foley, criticized the promotions of two HCPD police officers involved in her brother’s case and accused the department of engaging in cover-ups at an Horry County Council meeting where she spoke in favor of merging Horry County’s two law enforcement agencies.

“Horry County’s dual law enforcement agencies have given me starkly different experiences. My family has unfortunately met lots of other families that have been denied justice for their loved ones and have had similarly horrific experiences with the Horry County Police Department,” Foley said. “The Horry County Police Department has presented itself to my family as a department with a culture that lacks boundaries or accountability.”

Sexual harassment, retaliation and wrongful termination allegations

In November 2025, Horry County deputy administrator for public safety Randy Webster retired, and the county released that four HCPD officers and the top county spokesperson resigned following an Internal Affairs investigation which found the officers violated the department’s code for “conduct unbecoming” related to alleged sexual affairs.

The Sun News discovered that in 2020, HCPD officers found to have engaged in sexual activity on duty were not all dismissed, and consensual, off-duty relationships between officers typically don’t lead to dismissals. Leonhardt said although no sexual activity occurred on duty, “It boils down to, for us, trust.”

Shortly after, Horry County, HCPD, Leonhardt and Webster were hit with a lawsuit from two of the recently resigned employees. Former Horry County Police Department Investigator Kelsey Manemeit and former county public information officer Mikayla Moskov say they were forced out after raising concerns about a pattern of sexual harassment from Webster.

Manemeit alleges Webster made unwanted advances, kissing her cheek, telling her he dreamed about her and saying he loved her.

Although the county’s official position remains that Webster’s departure was unrelated to the allegations, Horry County Council voted to remove his name from the $24 million emergency operations center in December 2025.

Recent bribery charges

Last month, an HCPD police officer was charged with two counts of bribery by a public official and two counts of misconduct in office after allegedly seeking money to drop traffic violations.

After issuing tickets for traffic violations in the Garden City area, Pfc. Aldrich Roshun Calloway allegedly messaged the drivers saying he would dismiss the tickets in exchange for hundreds of dollars.

“This is us making a deal under the table,” Calloway told one driver, according to an arrest warrant.

The case served as yet more grievance fodder in public input for a potential law enforcement union at the County Council meeting.

A second deputy chief departs

Just last week, another HCPD deputy chief departed after following an Internal Affairs investigation concerning policy violations in the June 2022 arrest of former Horry County Councilman Harold Worley’s son-in-law Thomas Wade Long.

Winburn violated HCPD policy by ordering the arresting officer to simply issue Long a citation and return him to the incident location in Little River as Long was being taken, handcuffed, to the J. Reuben Long Detention Center.

The department conducted an Internal Affairs investigation back in 2022, according to a statement from Leonhardt, but HCPD launched another investigation last month after receiving a Freedom of Information Act request for documents related to the incident.

“There was an Internal Affairs investigation in 2022 regarding the incident under previous leadership at the department, so I was not immediately aware of it, and it was conducted and completed before my time as Chief,” Leonhardt said.

When Long filed a lawsuit, Furr claims another officer called him in July 2025, with concerns of retaliation if he was deposed. According to Furr’s lawsuit, Leonhardt only addressed Winburn’s situation after Furr “blew the whistle on the misconduct in 2026.”

Is misconduct inevitable?

Some council members pointed to misconduct and mismanagement in other institutions when asked about HCPD controversies in recent years.

Prior to current Chief Leonhardt and former Chief Joseph Hill, in 2016, under former Chief Saundra Rhodes, multiple officers were indicted for misconduct, including sexual battery and failure to investigate more than 100 cases. Department misconduct cost both victims and taxpayers in 2022 when a jury ordered HCPD to pay nearly $3.7 million to five women purportedly harmed by a former detective, the chief and the department.

“I’m not for just throwing it on a referendum, just because this has happened, that has happened, a lot of them I don’t agree with,” Hardee said. “Some of them are just things that happen, people are human. It happens in churches. It happens in schools. It happens in hospitals.”

Masciarelli, who wouldn’t say whether he would support a referendum, echoed the sentiment.

“Things happen in every industry in the world – you cannot take an industry, the churches, the hospitals, the pharmaceutical industry, the banking industry – things happen in every single industry, but the police are supposed to be perfect,” said Masciarelli.

And some fear that a more powerful sheriff’s office could engage in future corruption. Councilman Dennis DiSabato said as much in the Horry County Council meeting, pointing to 17 South Carolina sheriffs arrested for abuse of power in the past five years – and DiSabato isn’t alone. Both Hardee and Loftus praised current Sheriff Thompson, but told The Sun News they have reservations about the future.

“Is that the way we need to go? I don’t know. That’s why we’re getting the independent people,” Hardee said of the independent committee. “It won’t be made up of people that have any dealings with the police or County Council or whatever, and we will get them a task to look at some things and get some questions, and we’re going to look at the cost and stuff, and then we can put it on the ballot, and the people know what they’re voting for.”