This week, Greenville County sheriff deputies will start being outfitted with body cameras, according to a report by The Greenville News. There is, of course, some debate over the impact body cameras have on law enforcement, with the loudest dissent coming from those who believe it hinders police from using necessary force in certain situations. But law enforcement accountability is rarely (if ever) a bad thing, and in the long run, body cameras should prove to make both the sheriff’s department and the local community more accountable for decisions they make. The general sentiment among the public seems to be that the cameras are a win-win for people on both sides of the badge.
However, one thing that The Greenville News alluded to but didn’t explicitly state is that the use of body cameras is a big change of direction for Greenville and one that came to fruition as a direct result of local elections. The article begins by stating, “The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office will begin outfitting deputies with body cameras this week, nearly two years after the state passed a law requiring officers to wear them.” So for two years, we’ve essentially been in violation of state law, thanks in large part to former sheriff Steve Loftis, who demonstrated that he was in no hurry to outfit his department with them.
This became a major talking point in the sheriff’s election that happened last year, and the end result was that Will Lewis defeated Loftis in a runoff election. Now that Lewis has taken over, changes are happening, and we should start to see some of these changes show up in the form of cameras on sheriff deputies in the upcoming weeks.
I believe that one indicator of a strong city is when local elections have a tangible impact on the community. Governments get complacent, and it’s easy for cities, counties, and states to ensure that the “good ole boys” keep getting re-elected so as to not upset the status quo. That this didn’t happen in Greenville’s sheriff election is a good sign for the future of Greenville County and the Upstate.