Merging Horry County police departments a bad idea

Horry County has had a functioning police department for many years, or at least we thought it was functioning. Recent resignations and civil suits have prompted much discussion about the sheriff’s department merging with the Horry County Police Department, as if this would solve the problems.

I suggest a different approach to professional law enforcement in Horry County.

First, the prospect of having an elected official run a law enforcement organization is scary, as elected officials get their jobs based on popularity, partisan politics, and not qualifications. In a county where Republicans mostly prevail regardless of the office for which they seek, it would seem that any Democrat would be disenfranchised by just allowing the sheriff to take over the police force.

While I know nothing about the sheriff’s credentials or his record, he was elected to the office based on the current configuration of law enforcement services in the county.

This story was originally published June 15, 2016 at 10:29 AM with the headline "Merging Horry County police departments a bad idea."