Hartsville Police open Safe Communities office on S. Fifth
Hartsville Chief of Police Jerry Thompson and Lt. Tenyonde Richardson cut the ribbon to official open the Safe Communities office at 710 S. Fifth Street in Hartsville.
Photo by Melissa Rollins
By Melissa Rollins, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
Community policing in Hartsville now has a home on the south side of town. On Tuesday, July 18, the Hartsville Police Department held a ribbon cutting ceremony for their Safe Communities Office on South Fifth Street.
The office will serve as a point of contact for people who want to talk with an officer but don’t want to go to the main police station. Community outreach events, like the department’s Coffee with a Cop, will also be held at the office.
The new office space will be run by Lt. Tenyonde Richardson.
“It is a long time coming and now it is here,” Richardson said. “A building space dedicated to the community is a good thing and we want to do everything we can to make this a successful project. We have done a lot of things in the past year and a half, when it comes to community policing, and we are going to do a lot more things in the community as well.”
Investing in the community is the main reason behind starting the Safe Communities Program.
“One of things we do is the Notified Offender Program which is where an individual who has messed up in the past and we are going to help them turn their life around,” Richardson said. “It is all about working in the community and bridging the gap because despite what you see going on around the country, police doing things that aren’t positive, having a building like this is positive. We want to show the community that we are here to stay and we are making bridging that gap a reality. Having the community and the police working together is a very good thing.”
Richardson said that the community is always welcome to stop by the Safe Communities office to talk with an officer.
“Having an office space dedicated solely to the community is a great thing,” Richardson said. “I welcome the community to come down and give us some ideas of how we can make the community better. Any issue that they have, they can come talk to us.”
Hartsville Chief of Police Jerry Thompson told those gathered at the ribbon cutting that he was looking forward to the great work that will take place at the new location.
“I wanted to let you know that we have put the right people in the right place through tireless effort of our manager Natalie Zeigler; we wouldn’t be here right now if it weren’t for her,” Thompson said. “I am well pleased with Lt. Richardson; he is the right one for the right place to be and this is it. We have a young lady who is coming on with us; right now she is at the academy for 12 weeks. She’s going to be part of the program and we are very excited about her coming back. This is something that all of the Hartsville Police Department and the City of Hartsville have signed on to back and represent and it is going to be a worthy cause.”
The Safe Communities office is located at 710 S. Fifth Street in Hartsville.