ORANGEBURG, S.C. — The Orangeburg County Sherriff's Office and the City of Orangeburg's Department of Public Safety, South Carolina State University and Claflin University, opened a joint community policing annex station on Wednesday.
The post will provide a central place for the four departments to better respond to the communities needs. It is located at the intersection of Goff Avenue and Buckley Street.
Kenneth White III is a sophomore at Claflin University and believes this new sub station will help to make him feel safer.
“It actually brings more excitement because I don’t have to worry about watching my back, actually being worried about my peers if I'm inside and they’re outside.”
Orangeburg City Administrator Sidney Evering said this is a prime location for the sub station.
“Buckley and Goff represents for a lot of students a place where they can all centrally locate," Evering said. "So you have Claflin and South Carolina State pretty much being right next to each other. And so we felt this would be the primary location to have the biggest present for our buck so to speak.”
Casey Fore is a student at South Carolina State University and says this will not only help the universities but the community greatly.
“I think that not only does it have an effect on the students but it has an effect on the community as well," said Fore. "So I think that as far as they work together and they try to create a plan to manage safety control, I think that it will be effective.”
Claflin University Police Chief Melvin Williams said he believes the joint substation will help to better serve the community.
“What we’re doing is we’re staying proactive," Williams said. "We are learning from things that are happening within the city. We’re learning from things that are happening at South Carolina State. We’re learning from things that happened at Claflin. And we’re developing our plans based on data. We’re not just putting folks out just by happenstances, we’re putting them out based on what we believe the needs are.”
This lot is owned by South Carolina State University, and they plan on adding cameras for additional safety.
As of right now, the station will be staffed as needed.