An update from Berkeley County Sheriff Duane Lewis

Two years ago I met many of you while going door-to-door while seeking the office of Sheriff. While meeting you, I learned about your needs and wants for the Daniel Island / Clements Ferry areas of Berkeley County. The issues of deputy visibility, response time, traffic and litter were among the most common.

To that end, since being elected Sheriff in 2015, I have put a plan in place to address these issues and have been working very hard in order to elevate the standards and level of service that we provide. This plan has several key ingredients, among those are:

CITIZENS' ADVISORY BOARD

This board is comprised of over 25 community leaders from throughout Berkeley County (Lisa Kerns is the representative for your area.) The Advisory Board members meet every six weeks in order to provide feedback to the Sheriff’s Office about things they have been doing and what we can do in order to help them.

COMMUNITY ACTION TEAM

The CAT members work specific geographic zones within the county and they are a direct liaison with the Citizens’ Advisory Board members. Between meetings, members of the Advisory Board have a specific CAT deputy to work with in order to solve the issues in their areas. The CAT deputies are like a Swiss Army Knife; they do a little bit of everything in order to help the citizens.

PATROL AND VISIBILITY

We have put deputies back on the streets, in marked cars and in the community. One cannot serve a community if they do not know the community. We now have more marked cruisers on the streets than ever before. These deputies work the same zones whenever possible; this way they know the residents in their areas and they get to know where the areas in need of attention are. We have added over 30 radar units to our vehicles so that deputies can help address the neighborhood speeding concerns.

DRUGS

Drugs and drug abuse continue to eat away at the fiber of our communities and I heard that over and over during my campaign. To help combat this epidemic, deputies actively seek drug violations and we arrest them. In 2016, we made over 875 drug arrests with many of them involving hard drugs and/or firearms. We also have a metro narcotics unit that serves Berkeley County and they are very active. We work very closely with our federal partners, addressing larger scale and scope cases that impact Berkeley County.

With your support and the support of County Council, we are moving the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office in the right direction. The issues that y’all told me about while I was campaigning are now being addressed and I will continue to work for you each and every day. Thanks for your time and may God continue to bless this great nation and Berkeley County.