I recently attended and graduated the SC Criminal Justice Academy for the  three week Basic Jail Training Program. Basic Jail students were to report on Sunday evenings at six to be accounted for.  Once there at the Academy, we were to stay overnight and could not leave until the following Friday afternoon. While being away from home and our loved ones, this arrangement was an added stress to our lives.

We were given many different topics to learn and be tested on in the three short weeks.  During the events of a normal day, we were to be in class by 06:45 for head count and line up for breakfast by 07:00. After breakfast, we were in class until lunch at 11:45. Our instructors gave us frequent breaks, so we didn’t get bored or fatigued. After lunch, we were to dress in our Defensive Tactics  attire which were black shorts, white tee shirt, tennis shoes and duty belts.  The defensive tactics which  include hands on use of force, defensive counter measures, spontaneous knife defense and handcuffing were taught  throughout the entire 3 weeks of training.  After the defensive tactics class we had our dinner at 5:30 and then we were left to ourselves to study and practice our hands on tactics.

Just a few of the  class room training subjects  include legals, ethics, booking and admissions, fingerprinting, report writing, classification of inmates, jail security and patrol procedures, gang recognition and drug identification. Exams were given on the 1^st and 2nd Friday, and on the second week, we were also tested on Thursday  for the defense tactics. On the 3^rd week, our exam was on Thursday, so we had shorter time to study all of the information.   All three weeks were packed with helpful information that I will use every day in my job. 

The graduation took place in our gymnasium on the third Friday.  This was a very proud moment for all of us in Basic Jail school. We stayed up late to get extra help with our tactics and study our information which ended up paying  off in the long run. This was a huge accomplishment for all of us.

All in all, this was a great experience for me.  At the academy,  I met many new and interesting people who I will never forget. I learned many valuable skills and subjects.   This accomplishment is just a small stepping stone to furthering our careers. 


Detention Officer
Lisa Davis

The Police Summer Adventure Camp for children ages 10 to 13 will be July 29th through Aug.3^rd. There are 65 children and 8 teen counselors signed up to attend.

The camp is run by our school resource officers along with other members of the police department.  This will give the campers a good opportunity to get to know real Police Officers and learn from them what real police work is all about. 

Several classes are planned for these campers and include classes on: Respect, Safety around water and on bikes, Staying away from Drugs/Alcohol, Bullying, and general school behavior. 

Field trips this year include: bowling, skating, a movie in Easley (Smurfs), a Greenville Drive baseball game, Discovery Island water park, a visit to Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, and finishing the week at Table Rock State Park with hiking, a zoology class instructed by Park Rangers (in the creek), swimming and a cook out of hot dogs and hamburgers. 

Much of our food will be donated from the Pickens County School Dist through a summer feeding program grant.  Transportation will be through using a Pickens County School Dist. Activity bus. 

The Police Adventure Camp was funded this year through donations by: Toyota of Easley, Tri Tech USA, McKinney Dodge, Vulcan Materials, and others. 

Chief Leland (Corky) MIller

One Text or Call Could Wreck It All 

Did you know that “distracted driving” was the 2009 word of the year according to Webster’s Dictionary?  But unfortunately, this is no passing fad.  Distracted driving has become a trend with deadly, real consequences. For anyone who thinks they can talk on their phone, text, apply make-up, or do any other distracting activity while driving, it’s time for a crash course in reality from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA): 

• In 2009, nearly 5,500 people were killed and a half million more were injured in distracted driving crashes. (NHTSA)
• Drivers who use hand-held devices are four times as likely to be involved in a serious crash. (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety)
• Twenty percent of injury crashes in 2009 involved reports of distracted driving. (NHTSA)
• Younger, inexperienced drivers under 20 years old have the highest proportion of distraction-related fatal crashes. (NHTSA) 

While those numbers may sound like just statistics, they’re anything but.  They could be parents, children, neighbors and friends from right here in Liberty South Carolina.  There are too many sad tales of deaths and injuries that could have been prevented had drivers been paying attention to the road instead of someone or something else.  So, why do so many people participate in this dangerous behavior?  With more technology now than ever, driver distractions have risen to unprecedented levels.  We live in a world where people expect instant, real-time information 24 hours a day, and those desires don’t stop just because they get behind the wheel.  Drivers simply do not realize – or choose to ignore – the danger they create when they take their eyes off the road, their hands off the wheel, and their focus off driving.  People often say, “I can do two things at once.  I’ve memorized where the numbers are on my phone, so I don’t have to look.” Or, “Sending or reading one text is pretty quick – that should be okay.”  They couldn’t be more wrong.  For those who think they can do two things at once, think about this: According to a study by Carnegie Mellon, driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37 percent. Can you really afford to lose that much brainpower?  Driving is an activity that requires your full attention and focus in order to keep yourself and others safe.  Yes, this is a national problem, but it also affects us right here in Liberty.   No one is immune from the dangers of distracted driving. So please remember: One text or call could wreck it all.