Exclusive | 72 S.C. troopers disciplined over five years

More than 500 complaints have been filed against S.C. state troopers since 2004 — though two-thirds of the closed cases didn’t result in any formal disciplinary action — a review by The State newspaper found.

Over the past five years, 72 troopers — most of them white — were reprimanded, suspended, demoted or fired for various reasons, according to information provided to the newspaper by the S.C. Department of Public Safety under the state Freedom of Information Act.

The Highway Patrol has weathered a firestorm of criticism since dashboard-camera videos showing questionable trooper actions surfaced last month.

A survey by The State of internal affairs files from 2006 and 2007 found more than 70 troopers were accused of misconduct, ranging from:

• Having inappropriate MySpace pages

• Being rude to drivers during traffic stops

• Firing or using their weapons inappropriately

• Recklessly injuring or causing the death of motorists and others while responding to calls or during high-speed pursuits

Department of Public Safety spokesman Sid Gaulden said Wednesday the number of public complaints or agency-generated investigations against troopers represents a tiny fraction of about 2.5 million traffic stops and contacts statewide by troopers over the last four years.

“From the numbers I’ve seen, ... there’s no indication of any systemic pattern of misconduct,” he said. “The overwhelming majority of complaints are not sustained.”

But Rep. Leon Howard, D-Richland, chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus, said he doesn’t trust those numbers.

“That’s like a big-time drug dealer being asked to go into his own home and let SLED know if he found any drugs,” he said.

Howard said he suspects the public has lost so much confidence in the Highway Patrol in recent years that many problems go unreported, noting the general sentiment he has heard is that “they’re good ol’ boys, and they’re going to look after one another.”

Joel Sawyer, spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford, said that without more complete statistics, “it’s just impossible for us to offer any kind of analysis” of the figures provided to The State.

Still, Sawyer said, “job No. 1” for the new department director — whom Sanford has not yet nominated — will be to ensure that “all stops and motorists are treated professionally.”

Public Safety Director James Schweitzer and Highway Patrol commander Col. Russell Roark resigned under fire Feb. 29 after Sanford said they were too lenient on a white trooper shown on a videotape using a racial slur against a fleeing black suspect during a 2004 traffic stop in Greenwood County.

The U.S. attorney for South Carolina, the FBI, the Justice Department and the State Law Enforcement Division have launched investigations into possible civil rights violations stemming from that incident and others caught on videotape, including two in which troopers struck suspects fleeing on foot with their patrol vehicles.

From Jan. 1, 2004, through Dec. 31, 2007, 511 complaints were made against troopers — 214 in 2004, 58 in 2005, 123 in 2006 and 116 last year, department records show.

Gaulden couldn’t explain the fluctuation, noting the percentage increases or drops didn’t match changes in troop strength for those years. There were 788 troopers in 2004, 785 in 2005, 878 in 2006 and 923 last year, he said.

Nearly 200 complaints were for general misconduct. Other big complaint categories included traffic enforcement, pursuits and use of force.

The State newspaper’s survey of internal affairs files from 2006 and 2007, for example, found that a trooper resigned after he was accused of repeatedly kicking a suspect in the head after a high-speed pursuit in which shots were fired at the fleeing vehicle.

Of 72 troopers disciplined from Jan. 28, 2003, through Feb. 13, 2008, nine white troopers and three black troopers were fired, while 47 white troopers and 10 black troopers were suspended, department records show. Two of the suspended white troopers were women.

Gaulden said those percentages roughly mirror the racial breakdown of the Highway Patrol as a whole; white men make up about 83 percent of the force.

Reach Brundrett at (803) 771-8484.