Hour 2 - Segment 4 - Thurs Aug 14 2025 - The Sheriff's Runoff Debate - Rusty Clevenger vs. Bill Rhyne hosted by Charlie James part 4 of 4

Hour 2 - Segment 4 - Thurs Aug 14 2025 - The Sheriff's Runoff Debate - Rusty Clevenger vs. Bill Rhyne hosted by Charlie James part 4 of 4 - You know, we just talked about, community policing, the importance of the average citizen in law enforcement. There's a new study that was done by NPR, and I hate to quote them, but NPR said that most people don't report crime because they just don't feel like anything is going to be done about it. Bill Ryan, can you just let the people know that they're very important? Absolutely. This is about taking a proactive choice and making a proactive choice, not just from law enforcement, but also from the people. You know? We need to be a proactive agency. We need to not be a reactive agency. When you become a reactive agency, what is happening is crime's already taken place. That's where I get back to talking about crime prevention. We need to if you are proactive, you begin to reduce crime. You absolutely 100% that has to be the mindset of the people too because they want crime to go down. If they see things, they need to report it. They need to talk to us. Just as Rusty gave an example just a minute ago, it takes just one thing, just the smallest of things, and we say this all the time with, like, hit and runs. We would have, say, a felony DUI with death, and it was a hit and run. How many people saw that crash? I mean, let's let's realistically think about how much traffic is. Now, they could have been in the area they might not have seen it, but in most cases, there's gonna be a lot of traffic around those areas. Some people just choose to not get involved. I don't know if it's because of fear of, repercussions. I I really don't know what it is, but we all have to have a, vested interest in our county. And, you know, this is such a wonderful area to live. You start looking at Spartanburg County. You start looking at Greenville County and the growth rate. Let me tell you something. Greenville and Spartanburg County are what drive the state of South Carolina and will continue to drive the state of South Carolina for years to come. Mister Clevedger, how can we assure people that when they do report a crime, something's gonna be done about it? Intelligence is a an unbelievable important part of law enforcement now. And as Bill stated, you know, we've gotta look at, doing something before crime's actually committed. If we can, you know, work a vandalism that might lead up to a more serious crime burglary, other things. That's definitely worth our time and, you know, to make sure that, the citizens are are taken care of, and it could be as simple as that. And so the most minute thing may just like I was talking about just a moment ago, the most minute thing or the the the littlest of information that's passed on, is extremely important. But I believe your question was, you know, can the citizens rest assured that sheriff's office is gonna be receptive and responsive to those issues? Yes. I've, if I were elected sheriff, yes, I would make sure that was a priority because that's the way I was as a detective. I actually won a crime stoppers award one year while I was a detective, and that is citizens calling in, making sure that, you know, their concerns are heard and understood. And following through with that is what got me that award that year. And simply, I mean, simply put, if you're doing a great job, if you're, you know, a good detective, you're following through with that. And as sheriff, I would evaluate and make sure we have good detectives in that, in that department to make sure and take care of the crimes and hopefully solve them before we have something more serious come up. I wanna thank the folks from Palmetto House Republican Women. We've got Debbie Baker joining us. Debbie, do you have a question for the candidates? And I think this is going to involve some of our students in Spartanburg. Right? Yes. Thank you, Charlie. I am also a sitting board member on Spartanbur ...