After 6 months, SC town with no cops gains new police chief
For the first time since last year, police officers will soon be patrolling the streets of Pine Ridge again.
Since last October, the small Lexington County town near the intersection of Interstate 77 and Interstate 26 has not had a functioning police department. That’s when the town’s interim police chief and only serving officer resigned, leaving Pine Ridge’s police office vacant.
On Tuesday — six months to the day since Lt. Vincent Silano resigned — Andre’ Williams will be sworn in as Pine Ridge’s new police chief at a meeting of the town council. Williams is currently the police chief of Kingstree, and formerly the police chief of Chester and chief of security for the Chester County school district.
Williams has worked in law enforcement since 1993, when he became an officer with the S.C. Department of Corrections. He earned a degree in criminal justice from Claflin University in 2011.
At the same time, Pine Ridge will welcome back Patrolman Patrick Swanson, a former Pine Ridge officer who spent the past year on deployment to Germany with the S.C. Army National Guard.
Pine Ridge lost its police department after nine police officers, including four chiefs, left the department within a three-year time span. Officers had criticized micromanagement of the department from then-Mayor Robert Wells, although one chief left after the S.C. Law Enforcement Division determined he coached a high school basketball team at times he should have been on patrol.
Wells resigned as Pine Ridge’s mayor last month, citing the lingering effects of a COVID-19 diagnosis.
Williams has been the subject of controversy as well. In 2014, while he was police chief in Chester, Williams was criticized for drawing his gun and handcuffing two teenagers during a routine traffic stop.
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