Deputies took their efforts to fight crime in Dillon County a step further Tuesday by meeting with residents from a community in the county known for its crime.
Members of the Dillon County Sheriff’s Community Action Team along with Sheriff Major Hulon and his Chief Deputy Sheriff Larry Abraham held a public meeting in the Newtown community.
The Community Action Team (CAT) was implemented by Hulon this year as a tool to get Dillon County residents involved in helping law enforcement fight crime in the area. Many Newtown residents expressed their concerns to deputies during the meeting and told them that they fear for their safety.
Many of the residents are too scared to visit the neighborhood stores to go shopping, Newtown resident Eugene Campbell said.
“You got groups of people hanging around the store. They are afraid to support the community stores. They’ll get in the car and go an extra block to another store,” Campbell said. “They don’t know what those people might do to them.”
Residents said during the meeting that their neighborhoods are havens for drugs and violence.
One resident told Hulon her home is surrounded by abandon properties where people loiter and sleep.
“It’s not only disturbing, to her it’s nerve-wracking,” the sheriff said.
Hulon addressed the crowd Tuesday and assured them he and Dillon County deputies will do whatever it takes to keep their communities safe and clean.
If residents have tips about crime or just want to tell officers their worries then he and his deputies will always be available, Hulon said.
Because the county has a problem with people walking the streets late at night, sheriff’s deputies are now conducting field interviews, Abraham said.
Whenever a deputy sees a person wandering at night they will question that person, ask for identification and write down a physical description, Abraham said.
“If they cannot say they live there, we recommend that they move on,” Abraham said. “If you’re not at someone’s house and everything is closed, what are you doing out on the street?”
One of the main goals of CAT is to help neighborhoods organize their own crime watch organizations.
Attendees of the meeting were given packets containing information on being vigilant and preventing crime.
Abraham told the group that they should not be afraid to inquire about their neighbors and that they should know what’s going on around them.
The residents were also introduce to the sheriff’s office’s mobile command unit. The unit acts as a substation and will appear in different areas of the county where attention is needed.
Residents are encouraged by deputies to visit the unit and speak with deputies when the unit is in their neighborhood.
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