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City’s security agency unique in S.C.
Department of Homeland Security has 42 employees, $2 million budget
By Adam Beam
The State (South Carolina)
November 24, 2008
Columbia officials have spent more than $3 million the past two years to create a public safety department that is the only one of its kind in South Carolina — and possibly the United States.
The Department of Homeland Security, with 42 employees and a $2 million annual budget, was created in 2007 as a way to attract millions of federal homeland security dollars pouring into South Carolina after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Most of its officers, who cannot carry a gun or arrest people, spend their time as security guards for neighborhoods — searching for fallen tree limbs, damaged street signs and suspicious activity. They radio police if they find anything.
The guards also reserve parking spaces for City Council members on meeting days, direct traffic at city-sponsored events and keep watch over Columbia water and sewer plants.
“I like to call them our ambassadors,” said Harold Reaves, the department’s director “They are the eyes and the ears of the city of Columbia and not only for the Police Department, but for every department.”
The department has eight sworn police officers, including Reaves. Sworn officers make the department eligible for accreditation through the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement, or CALEA.
Columbia has the only homeland security department in the country being evaluated for accreditation, said Sylvester Daughtry Jr., CALEA’s executive director.
“We certainly are actively recruiting them,” Daughtry said of local homeland security departments. “It’s a way for these new agencies ... to organize properly.”
Police departments across the country began forming homeland security components after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers to take advantage of new federal funding.
But what makes Columbia’s homeland security division different is its size and that it reports to Reaves, not the police chief.
Richland County has one full-time homeland security officer who reports to Sheriff Leon Lott. The deputy’s salary comes from a different federal grant.
That deputy coordinates with state and federal officials and makes sure the county’s high-risk targets are protected.
“I’m just not aware of anybody who has it set up like (Columbia),” said Lott, who also is the county’s homeland security director.
“What they consider the duties of the homeland security department is different than what we consider.
“I’m not saying that they are doing it wrong; we just have different approaches to it,” Lott said.
About $270 million in federal homeland security money has come into South Carolina, according to Bob Connell, who oversees homeland security grants for the State Law Enforcement Division. SLED funnels the money to county homeland security committees, which decide who gets the money and how to use it.
“We make sure we don’t have money that is wasted and that we don’t have duplication of equipment,” said Lott, who is chairman of Richland County’s committee.
But Columbia’s grant money comes directly from the federal government through its Metropolitan Medical Response System. The program was started in 1996 after the Oklahoma City bombing and Tokyo mass transit sarin gas attack.
That program provides money to stock up on pharmaceuticals and protective equipment. It also helps coordinate hospitals and law enforcement agencies during disasters.
Since 2004, Columbia has received about $1.1 million in these grants, Connell said.
“You can see the pattern where everything is being poured into Homeland Security from the federal government,” Reaves said. “That’s where you’re going to see your funding in the future.”
Reach Beam at (803) 771-8405.
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