Socastee has a School Resource Officer for the first time in six years.
Horry County Police Officer Nick Sale began working January 17.
In August 2017, SROs were removed from schools due to budgeting issues. The officers were replaced with security guards from a private company, Allied Universal. But a new state grant has allowed all Horry County high schools to have an SRO.
“The state of South Carolina gave Horry County gave Horry County Police a large grant in order to do this,” Principal Mr. Jeremy Rich said. “It’s a grant that will be continual from year to year, and we should have a school resource officer from here on out as long as we know.”
Officer Sale has been in law enforcement since 2019. This is his first time being a school resource officer.
“In terms of security-wise obviously it’s very different then working on the road and being a patrol officer,” he said.
Alongside the training he has to be a police officer, he has also done specific training to be an SRO.
“We attend a two-week class at the criminal justice academy out in Columbia,” he said. “It goes over the juvenile law and the stuff that we can or can’t use; we do active- shooting training with the patrol guys as well, and the basic firearms, rifle, and SRO specific training.”
Officer Sale works alongside Security Guard Chris Berry, who has worked as a school security guard for almost four years after working in law enforcement for 18 years in West Virginia. They share similar tasks, such as checking locked doors and keeping possible threats out of the school. However, Officer Sale can do more because he is law enforcement.
“He has the ability to arrest and uphold the law and make any actions needed for any criminal instances that occur,” Mr. Berry said. “I’m just here to have one job and one job only, and that is to protect students and staff from any active threats that come towards the school.”
Officer Sale has already made an arrest.
“I have made an arrest on Friday… for disrupting schools, assault, and trespassing,” he said.
The HCPD plans to move SROs to middle schools and eventually all throughout HCS.
“We’ll try to work out the kinks first before we go full board into middle schools, but that’s the plan,” Sale said.
As well as being another layer of security for Socastee, Officer Sale said he is also here to become a part of the community. This means “working with students and getting to know the students and their daily routines, who they are, what they’re about and their home lives too,” he said. “We’re part of the community, as well, and we all live here, so let’s be part of the school district as well.”
