COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Richland County Sheriff's Department is using sports cars as a strategy to draw the attention of the community and build relationships between their deputies and the people that they serve.
“They see that car driving through the neighborhood, it’s easy to recognize, it’s different than our other cars, they know the cat team is there,” Richland County Sherriff, Leon Lott, said.
On Monday, Sheriff Lott, along with 15 Community Action Team (CAT) deputies unveiled the teams’ 17 new Ford Mustang GTs aimed at attracting attention and being visible in the community.
“Each one of the CAT deputies are assigned neighborhoods. They go to all their community meetings, they give out their phone numbers. That’s that personal connection that these citizens have straight with somebody in the sheriff's department,”
Formed in 1998, the CATs' goal is to become trusted, dependable advocate for their community.
“It's being very proactive. Again, building relationships. crime watch groups, having the community talk to us where we listen, hear what's going on. We can stop problems before they become bigger problems. If you address them, identify them when they're small you can keep them from getting big and that's what it does, that's what the CAT team does,” Sheriff Lott said.
Kim Hunter, who lives in the lower Richland area, says she’d like to see more community involvement from law enforcement in her area.
“They need to get to know the people in their community not just when something happens, they need to be there through the good times also. know the people that you work for, even if you know about them by name, that’s even better," she said.
Lt. Travis Roberts has been apart of the CAT team since 2010 and says “It’s my passion, building unity in the community, going out and talking with folks.”
Lt. Roberts is one of 15 CAT members who will be serving all eight regions of Richland County, which stretches from Dutch Fork Rd to the lower Richland area.
“We have more time than the guys working the road have call to call. when we have a specific issue in a community. we can go in and sit down and talk with them, have meetings with them, go sit on their front porch and drink cold tea or have some coffee in the morning, something like that just to work through whatever issues that community may have,” Lt. Roberts said.
The new vehicles are labeled with a community action team sticker so community members know exactly when cat deputies are in their areas.