Boone, Gregg vie for Florence County Sheriff’s Office

Choosing the next Florence County Sheriff is expected to be a difficult decision for many of the county’s residents, and they have less than 30 days to make up their minds.

Jimmy Gregg, who served as sheriff for 12 years, is running against incumbent Kenney Boone, who he endorsed for the position four years ago before retiring.

Gregg is running as a Democrat while Boone, who switched parties in 2007, is running as a Republican.

While the move was highly publicized, Boone said the race really isn’t about political parties.

“I am not a politician. I am a law enforcement officer,” he said.

Gregg also said this election shouldn’t be about political parties, or old sheriff versus new sheriff, or even Boone versus Gregg.

“This thing is about who can best manage the Florence County Sheriff’s Office,” Gregg said.

When he decided four years ago not to pursue another term, Gregg said, he thought the office would continue moving in a positive direction with Boone leading the way. But to him, things have changed, and that’s why he’s running against Boone.

“When I left there, I knew that Kenney was young and I knew that he was going to need some help and we had a good team in place for him there,” he said.  “I thought he had the same ideas and vision I had to keep the sheriff’s office moving in a good direction.”

Too much time and too many resources are being dedicated to the office’s traffic division and not enough has gone into combating serious crimes, Gregg said.

“I think keeping our children safe from sexual predators is more important than a traffic division,” he said.

Traffic is important, Gregg said, but that’s the S.C. Highway Patrol’s niche. Troopers are specially trained to work traffic and they do a good job, he said.

Deputies, meanwhile, are too slow to respond to calls about property and violent crimes, Gregg said.

“We need to take those (deputies) and put them back to what they are used to doing in Florence County, and that’s answering those types of calls,” Gregg said.

Boone pointed out that the largest cocaine seizure in Florence County was initiated while a deputy was conducting a traffic stop.

About 73 pounds of the drug was seized during that stop. And, the cocaine had a street value of $3.2 million, Boone said.

“Drugs are the root of all evil,” he said. “We’re getting the drugs and cleaning them off the streets. Look at the gang intelligence that we get. Look at the burglaries, the larcenies, the crimes that we’re cutting because of our proactive effort.”

Traffic stops didn’t infringe on deputies checking 1,600 pieces of property every month and responding to 75,000 E-911 dispatch calls, Boone said.

Boone said he’s also dedicated to traffic enforcement because of the high number of traffic fatalities in Florence County.

“That’s lives, and you cannot put a price on that,” he said. “As a chief law enforcement officer, I can’t stand there and continue to let that happen.”

Boone said he’s proud of his traffic patrol and he’s proud of the relationships he’s nurtured with other agencies.

The first thing he did after being elected was assign deputies to work with several federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, Boone said. The sheriff’s office has received more than $3 million in funds seized through that deputy’s work with the DEA, he said.

Boone said he has also signed multi-jurisdictional agreements with several counties.

Gregg said it’s important to have cooperation from agencies within the county.

“I know when I was sheriff, I had suppers for law enforcement heads to come to and talk about problems,” he said.

Much can be learned through good relationships with law enforcement officials within the county, Gregg said. He said he admires Florence Police Chief Anson Shells and the work he and his staff have done to combat gangs, which are a serious problem in Florence County.

“That gang investigator he’s got up there is one of the best in the state. The juvenile crime rate (in the city) has been cut,” he said. “If I were sheriff, I would certainly be knocking at his door to find out how he did that.”

Q&A with Boone and Gregg

What does the Florence County Sheriff’s Office need?

Gregg: We have 325 sexual predators in Florence County, we’ve got one guy ... that’s looking over 325 sexual predators. There’s no way one (deputy) can look over that. We’re going to have to increase the manpower in that area. We’re going to have restructure manpower in the sheriff’s office to address these kinds of problems.

Boone: Funding is definitely an issue. We’re preparing a study comparing our office to other agencies. We’ve got a 119 (deputies) and 96 correction officers. This is a big county ... to keep up with our growth, somewhere down the line we’re going to have to add personnel.

What makes you the best candidate?

Gregg: The experience I have for one thing. I’ve been coroner for 12 years, and I’ve been sheriff for 12 years. I understand the budget balance and the importance of cooperation between all the law enforcement agencies in Florence County. I understand the cooperation you have to have with county council in order to achieve the budget needs you have to have.

Boone: I started off in communications, and I’ve worked my way up in this agency. I’ve been on the road, I’ve answered the calls, and I’ve investigated the calls. I’ve surrounded myself with good people, which is extremely important. I am a hands-on sheriff. Those of the likes of Andy Griffith — those days have come and gone. A sheriff nowadays needs to be on the front line. I would never ask my deputies to do something I wouldn’t do.

What do you plan to accomplish in four years?

Gregg: It’s crucial particularly during these time that we take a good look at the sheriff’s office. We need to plan not just four years down the road, but for five or six years down the road. If you don’t do that, if you don’t build that foundation early on then it going to fail. I think you have to surround yourself with good people — knowledgeable people that are concerned about what’s going in Florence County and have the technology and expertise to deal with it.“

Boone: We want to continue with what we’ve done. I feel like (we need to expand on) some of our summer programs with our children. ... Any given summer, we might contact maybe three or four hundred kids. But in Florence School District 1 alone, they unleash 16,000 kids. We need to try to reach more kids. That’s very much a passion for me.

Candidate Bios

William “Kenney” Boone
Age: 41
Hometown: Florence
Family: A son and a daughter
Party: Republican
Education: Associate degree in criminal justice from Florence-Darlington Technical College.
Experience: Joined the Florence County Sheriff’s Office in 1987; elected sheriff in 2004.

Jimmy Gregg
Age: 58
Hometown: Florence
Family: Wife Marianne; two sons
Party: Democrat
Education: Spartanburg Methodist College
Experience: Began law enforcement career in 1974 at the Florence County Sheriff’s Office; served as Florence County Coroner for 12 years before elected sheriff in 1992.