SC

SC Police Academy Scandals: Resolved

AND SOME RARE GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY …  A pair of students at the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy were booted from the program last December – one for making racist comments to classmates, the other for improperly distributing prescription medication to a fellow student. A third allegation involving an alleged sexual encounter…

AND SOME RARE GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY … 

A pair of students at the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy were booted from the program last December – one for making racist comments to classmates, the other for improperly distributing prescription medication to a fellow student.

A third allegation involving an alleged sexual encounter in the academy’s parking lot was determined to have been unfounded … much to our founding editor’s chagrin.

FITS began investigating these scandals this week after receiving an anonymous tip from one of our readers. Upon contacting the academy, we were immediately provided with materials related to the agency’s internal investigation into the allegations – a rare example of a state agency “walking the walk” when it comes to transparency in government.

Given the cooperation of the academy – and the fact neither of these students have been in trouble before – we’re not going to dole out any public humiliation (i.e. we’re not going to name these particular guilty parties).

“Both (students) were allowed back at the Academy to continue training,” said Major Florence McCants, who helped conduct the investigation. “They are here training with the understanding that a second infraction of any type will remove them from the training program permanently.”

And result in a FITS article that does name names …

Anyway, props to McCants for her promptness and professionalism in responding to our requests. Hopefully this will be a teachable moment for other public information officers (PIOs) in state government whose default setting is to stonewall us and try to hide potentially incriminating information.

That never works ….

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19 comments

miss suzanne February 4, 2014 at 11:04 am

Maybe our governot can learn from McCants.

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Copper February 5, 2014 at 6:55 am

She went from a PIO position at the CPD to a high ranking position at the SCCJA. She has two things going for her, thats all.

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GrandTango February 4, 2014 at 11:34 am

Good jobs FITS: When you are done fighting racism, I will sleep MUCH better knowing you have found and eliminated ALL The racist comments from all of society, despite the fact there are no jobs….

You Go Boy…get after that racist speech. It’s not criminal…but it is next to it…and maybe when you finish, you can lock up anybody who uses a word the leftwing, hate-class is not fond of…

PS: You know Obama insulted the grandmother who raised him (after his African racial-rainbow, baby-daddy abandoned him) as a TYPICAL WHITE WOMAN…

Can’t wait to see you go after Obama.. Hope you have as much luck as you did ridding those dangerous racists over at the Po-Lease School…The New Black Panthers need you…Sign Mohammad, You Black Superman…(from the song Ali, circa 1979)….Float like a butter-nut, sting like a bee…

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Penus Williams February 4, 2014 at 11:54 am

Grand Tango, the village idiot of FITSNews, was unable to restrain himself and burst in the above diatribe as a response to an article about the cooperative PIO at the SC Criminal Justice Academy.

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southmauldin February 4, 2014 at 11:57 am

Big T’s like the gift that keeps on giving. Like the dollar shave club. Or syphilis.

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shifty henry February 4, 2014 at 12:35 pm

Yeah, like the “Grapefruit of the Month” subscription!

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GrandTango February 4, 2014 at 1:22 pm

You cannot stand it when I use the words of your own god, to D@*n your whole religion…

You rose using racism as a claim..now you are nothing but racists, w/ racial hatred as your last form of power.

And when one points out the irony…you $#!* all over yourselves, scared what I’m revealing will become evident to more…and break the back of your already reeling party….

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Derp February 4, 2014 at 11:54 am

Let’s see, a racist and a pill popper/pusher are allowed back into the program? That explains a lot about the state of policing in this country. They intentionally want unstable and less intelligent people, who will resort to violence first in dealing with the people they are sworn to serve and protect.

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Ipso Facto February 4, 2014 at 2:49 pm

“a racist and a pill popper/pusher are allowed back into the program? ”

That’s called “training”. When they graduate it will be paid time off until an internal investigation clears them.

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Same ol' Same ol' February 4, 2014 at 12:10 pm

The only problem with giving a second chance to violations of this nature is that usually, the perp learns how to hide it better next time. That’s just human nature and I hope it does not manifest itself with the involved individuals, but I’m probably going to be wrong on that.

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CorruptionInColumbia February 4, 2014 at 1:24 pm

I wonder if there is any truth to the rumor going around that recruits at SCCJA these days are being taught maneuvers to disarm CWP holders when interviewing them. If true, this and the mindset which promotes it, are indeed scary and not comforting.

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Scrappy February 4, 2014 at 3:22 pm

I sure hope they are. Just because someone holds a CWP does not make them less of a danger. It makes them a armed individual encountering a LEO. Because someone has never committed a crime of record and took a 8 hour class does not make them less of a threat.

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Uh huh February 4, 2014 at 3:54 pm

True, everyone is a threat to the police.

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CorruptionInColumbia February 4, 2014 at 4:00 pm

I beg to differ. Also, cops are around armed cops all the time. Some are from their agency or district, others are from other agencies and jurisdictions. Should they learn to disarm each-other on meeting, also? Just because they have been through a background check and the Academy is no guarantee that one of them might not break bad and become dangerous. How many cops have been arrested and convicted of armed robbery, kidnapping, sexual assault, and even murder in SC over the past decade?

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Scrappy February 4, 2014 at 5:57 pm

Yes, if they are “Interviewing” them. Poor argument. You can’t compare a armed LEO to a CWP holder. And, yes there have been many bad apples in LE, but if given the choice as a LEO I would much rather “meet” another officer that some crackpot that has never been “Convicted” that had 8 hours on a Saturday to kill so he enrolled in a CWP class.

I support the right to bear arms. But I firmly don’t believe that a LEO should have to a CWP to be armed while “interviewing” them.

I normally agree with your post but your analogy for this argument was poor at best.

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Scrappy February 4, 2014 at 5:58 pm

have to allow a CWP to be armed while “interviewing” them.

CorruptionInColumbia February 4, 2014 at 7:01 pm

Have you seen the YouTube videos of jerks wearing police uniforms who manhandle lawfully armed citizens with no good reason? If SCCJA is advocating this as an “officer safety” issue, I have serious problems with it. That a legally armed citizen is a potential threat above anyone else they might encounter should be their default mode of thought is troubling at best and should be to any citizen who values freedom and liberty.

This kind of crap, rather than fostering cooperation and sympathy from citizens will likely result in some serious confrontations which a little common sense would have prevented.

Scrappy February 5, 2014 at 9:44 am

You can’t have it both ways. The “Jerks wearing police uniforms” would include the local sheriff who has to sign off on CWP applications. What is that sheriff is a “bad apple”? Should a LEO just blindly trust a sheriffs judgement? How about the sheriff from Lee county that was selling cocaine from his vehicle? Think any of his CWP approvals are questionable?
How could you assume that because someone holds a CWP that they are less of a threat than anyone else? I don’t think anyone is targeting or trying to deminish anyones right to bear arms. One would have to assume that a LEO “interviewing” someone is doing such for a reason. Normaly it would be while investigating a crime.
I don’t think “fostering cooperation and sympathy” requires a LEO to “roll the dice” with their lives in hopes that the CWP holder he encounters has not “jumped time” and intends to harm them.

CorruptionInColumbia February 5, 2014 at 12:47 pm

Being manhandled by some overbearing jerk because he has a badge and a costume and you don’t is not right, particularly when you are lawfully armed and are not engaged in any illegal activity. I have many friends in the LE community and roots and associations which run deep there. While I feel that my friends are good people and most are Pro-2A, If a CWP holder is doing something blatantly illegal such as brandishing a weapon, threatening random people, and the like, he or she gets the same treatment that any other POS should receive, up to and including a bullet. If someone is simply carrying, that the Academy might be teaching automatic disarming techniques the instant contact is made, this is wrong.

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