SUMTER, S.C. — Homicides increased 150% in one year in Sumter, according to an annual report from the Sumter Police Department.
Lindley Hodge and D.J. Nance have lived in Sumter their whole life but say when it comes to the local police department, they don't know much about what officers are up to.
"I feel like I'm not in the loop in any of it," Nance said.
Hodge added, "I don't feel like I know much about it."
Thanks to the 47–page document, residents can see the department's work in 2023, from crime trends to community engagement efforts.
"I think that's great. I think that the community should know because if you're a little bit more in the know, you feel a little bit more safe I feel like," Hodge explained. "I didn't even know that that was a thing that was available to the public, so I would love to know personally."
Police Chief Russell Roark said the number of homicides in the city increased in 2023 overall, totaling 15. But Roark said that's because of one incident that happened in March.
"It's important for them to know what their police department's doing but also what is occurring in their community, the things that we're doing to address those issues, but also put into context how those numbers are tabulated, and what they really mean," Roark said. "It's really an anomaly for us to have that level of numbers of homicides in our city. We average traditionally six to eight. And it was just a terrible year, particularly with this one homicide. We had three children, another gentleman was murdered there, then a suicide. It really left a mark on our community. It was something that was really difficult to deal with."
Roark said the tragedy left an emotional mark on the community and influenced the statistics. But despite the increased numbers, the public isn't facing any increased danger.
"All of our homicides with the exception of one were either related by previous relationships, or they associated together. It wasn't a random act of violence whereby someone was killed," Roark said. "Crimes against persons are very difficult to police. Oftentimes, they happen within the family unit or there's a relationship between the victims and the perpetrators."
"It's driven by, in most cases, by domestic violence; it can be driven by other criminal activity," he added. "And unless we're there it's very difficult to police that. You know, with property crimes…you can sort of do a prediction of the time of year they go up where and then apply some strategy to deal with them. But the human factor of one person killing another is very, very difficult to predict and to police."
Another statistic that increased is auto break-ins. Roark said an easy way to prevent those is to remove anything valuable and lock your car. The auto breaking-and-entering (B&E) increased by 91% from 2022.
"We don't want to appear as if we're blaming the victim," Roark said. "We're in no way doing that. But we can do some things to protect ourselves and protect our property by simply locking our cars and in particular weapons. Many of the auto b and e's occur just for that purpose is to find a firearm. If we could secure off our firearms in our residence, but lock your car even if it's in your own driveway. That will protect yourself."
"If you leave your car anywhere, lock it. If you have something of value, particularly a firearm or computer, your cell phone, your purse, remove that from the vehicle," he added. "Placing your purse under the seat is not going to prevent it from being stolen if the car's broken into, but remove your key fob. We've had 69 vehicles stolen last year because the keys were left in them."
Roark said these crimes tend to increase during hunting season around this time of year. Specifically, he noted pick-up trucks are often targets.
"The perpetrators believe that pick-up trucks are associated with hunting and there's weapons inside, so that's usually a target of those individuals in those during hunting season," Roark said.
Resident Angel Jackson said her vehicle was broken into and hopes to see this number lowered in the next year.
"A lot of those things happened to me, you know?" Jackson said. "So I hope that they crack down on that."
To achieve that, Roark said his team focuses on the "Three E's"—evaluating the data, educating officers, and implementing enforcement strategies.
In 2023, Sumter Police reported 131 stolen car reports, including 12 Kias and 11 Hyundais. To address those auto break-ins, which the department said are the biggest targets for thieves, Sumter Police has partnered with Hyundai to offer 240 free steering wheel locks to local residents who have Hyundai models from 2011 to 2022.
To pick up a lock, you can call 803-436-2717.