Clark Reflects on First Days as Sheriff

Pickens County Sheriff Rick Clark recently completed his first week on the job.

“It's been a great first week,” he said.

He shared some of his thoughts on his first few days in office at a recent Children's Services Council of Pickens County training on what to do you. Check back with Easley Patch for more on that topic.

“We've got to get our people involved in more training just like this, and more community groups,” Clark said.

He said he would like to see PCSO investigators receive more training in child interview techniques.

“It's a whole other world from interviewing some thug who's on meth or stealing,” Clark said. “Being a child interviewer takes a great deal of training And it takes the right person. That's what we're going to change at the sheriff's office. Put the people who want to be in those positions in there, not just giving it to somebody because they're next in line for investigations. Especially in the juvenile area because it takes a special person to do that. You're wasting your time if you put somebody like me, who doesn't have the patience or the skill set to do that. Interviewing some thug, I'm great at, but not working with children.”

He wants to make sure his investigators have “the skill set that they need.”

Clark said he wants public services to work together, much like the Children's Services Council is bringing area agencies together to help young children.

“So we know what each other does, and we know what skill sets we have across the county in public support of our charities, to see if we can't make that a more efficient process, bring everybody together in the county, everybody who supports the family unit and is trying to preserve the family unit,” he said.

As he began his second week in office, Clark said he'd already heard from some upset people.

“We had a few complaints come in last week,” he said. “People just want to be heard and listened to. They'd come in and I'd bring them into the office. They didn't really think they were going to see the sheriff, but they did.

It went a long way,” he continued. “99 percent of them were valid points that we can address as a sheriff's office that is responding to crime, but also we're trying to prevent it. We're not just riding down the road saying, 'Hey, we checked that area.' We're getting out and talking to people, saying, 'Hey, what's going on in your neighborhood? What can we do?' Showing back up and following up with them.”

He said he wanted to continue something Sheriff C. David Stone began during his time in office – keeping up with sex offenders on the in Pickens County.

“They're checked every 30 days,” Clark said. “No other county checks them as often. If they're not found in 30 days, we put a couple of guys on them and we chase them with a warrant. Then they're back in the system or they're back in jail. We're going to continue doing that. That's been a great success.”

He said he wanted to work more with parole and probation officers, who can often serve as warning system when it comes to crime and repeat offenders.

He said he was adding an additional narcotics officer.

“His main goal will be coordinating with our road units and our smaller crimes,” Clark said. “Methi is our number one priority. Meth is related to metal theft, it's related to burglaries and everything else. He'll help with the directed patrol unit.”

Clark is a proponent of “intelligence-led policing.”

“Where we're getting data from all agencies across the county and we're seeing where we need to be,” Clark said. “The mapping system, when we start collecting through our records management system and our call volume, will literally ping and point and blink of where we need to be, and we're going to put units in that area.”

He said it would take some time to get the intelligence-led police effort up and running.

“Our uniform patrol division is doing so many things,” Clark said. “One of the biggest hassles now is mental transport. If you're lucky, you get to go to Patrick B. in Anderson, but a lot of times it may be Aiken. So that's one officer that's out for half a day. Then if we're unlucky, we have to go to Charleston.”

He said “everything is on the table.”

“We're showing up at every wreck in the county, even if they're off the roadway and there's no danger,” Clark said. “That's 20 or 30 or 40 minutes out of an officer's day. We have to re-evaluate everything. We have two litter officers. I don't know if I can justify two litter officers when I've got meth problems, when DSS is telling me 90 percent of their cases is dealing with meth.”