S.C. State introduces former SLED agent as new police chief
ORANGEBURG, S.C. (WIS) - South Carolina State University leaders introduced Dr. Richard Johnson as its new police chief.
There were no other applicants as the university hired Johnson in what a spokesman described as an “emergency hire.”
Johnson has been on the job for two weeks where he previously served for the department as an officer in the 1990s.
He has been in law enforcement for 35 years with the past 19 years at SLED and he currently lives in Orangeburg.
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“To be in law enforcement is a calling. It’s a calling from God and it was a calling that I answered,” Johnson said when he was introduced to the community Monday.
Johnson was hired only three weeks after his predecessor, Timothy Taylor was fired in mid-April after an on-campus officer-involved shooting.
Just in the past school year, there have been multiple arrests involving guns on the campus.
“The safety of the campus is my biggest concern. The ideal is to if not stop crime, reduce it down to an epidemic proportion. I’m a firm believer in community-oriented policing to address the crime problem,” said Johnson.
The university has added several security upgrades, including the addition of 700 surveillance cameras, improved lighting, and a gun-sniffing dog.
One of Johnson’s immediate goals is hiring more officers to a fill a depleted staff.
The department has 14 officers when fully staffed, which includes seven sworn officers.
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The department has five openings, with another three officers currently training at the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy.
“My plan is to take the experience and training that I have gotten over the years on working with community so that we can address those issues and those problems that are coming up so it is a big concern but I intend to tackle that by being more involved, more vigilant into getting more certified officers on the street so that the community can see that there is a law enforcing presence on campus.”
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