Huger-Wando communities take part in Q&A with Berkeley County Sheriff

Residents in the Huger-Wando communities on the Cainhoy Peninsula want to know about the crimes impacting their area, how local law enforcement officers are protecting students from school shootings, and whether or not there is adequate manpower to keep community members safe.

Those were just a few of the topics covered by Berkeley County Sheriff Duane Lewis at a May 24 Community Watch Meeting and Q&A session held at the Cainhoy Community Center. The Sheriff began by sharing details about the recent criminal activities and police work that have occurred in Berkeley County. According to Lewis, there has been an increase in burglaries, minor thefts, and thefts from unlocked cars in the area. Additionally, he says there have been a “couple cases” of LSD usage. Roughly 400 drug arrests were made by the Sheriff’s Department last year, with over $300,000 confiscated from drug dealers.

“The point of this particular meeting is to give the community an opportunity to have a one-on-one conversation with Sheriff Lewis,” said Berkeley County Sheriff’s Citizens Advisory Board member Sybil Mitchell. “The point of that is to ensure they have a clear understanding of what the office does, what he does, what policies he’s implementing or thinking about implementing.”

Lewis shared general updates on the Sheriff’s Department with the crowd, in addition to information on recent crimes.

He also told the audience that a grant was recently received for body cameras on all officers, and took time to introduce his new deputy Kristin Stringer. Stringer is the latest addition to the Community Action Team and will work alongside Deputy Cephus Rogers in the Cainhoy and Daniel Island areas.

During the meeting, Sheriff Lewis was asked some general questions about his job and why he wanted to work in his field.

“I come from a long, long history of law enforcement,” said Lewis. “My grandfather was, what we call back in the ‘20 and 30s, a rural policeman. He rode of motorcycle in the country with the police.”

Some of the dozen audience members had more specific inquiries about things that affected them. One woman asked what the Sheriff’s Department can do to protect students and schools.

“We right now have deputies in all the high schools and the middle schools,” added Lewis. “We are in discussions now to try to figure out how we can expand that…I advocate and have been advocating that we put deputies in every school.”

The Sheriff said that his department has been aiding in training teachers for active shooter scenarios.

As Mitchell stated, the night was an opportunity for attendees to become more familiar with the Sheriff’s Department as a whole. Some questions were about the size of the department, to which Lewis said that there are over 184 deputies. Someone asked what the likelihood of additional deputies was, and the Sheriff responded “not very likely.”