Midlands town will be without a police department next week after resignations
One Midlands town will be without a police department by next week.
After a convoluted process whereby the town of Swansea’s police chief resigned and then tried to rescind his resignation, the Swansea Town Council decided Monday to accept Chief William Charlton’s resignation and move forward without a staffed town police department after the chief’s last day on Sunday.
Charlton had resigned along with the small Lexington County town’s only other officer, a school resource officer, in mid-September. The last day for both officers will be Sunday, after which the town will be without local police protection.
Town Councilwoman Doris Simmons said she didn’t know why the officers had decided to resign, but said funding concerns likely played into both the officers’ decisions to leave and the town’s decision to allow them to go, even after Charlton changed his mind.
She went into Monday’s council meeting hoping Charlton would be able to stay on as Swansea’s police chief, but she said the picture of the town’s finances presented in a closed-door executive session showed that the town paying for its own policing past this week was not feasible.
“After about an hour and a half in executive session, it was determined that due to financial restraints, we made a joint effort to make a motion to accept his resignation,” said Simmons, who is running for mayor in November’s town election. “I feel for him and his family. It was a difficult decision.”
Attempts by The State to reach Charlton on Tuesday were unsuccessful. Swansea Mayor Viola Davis also did not respond to requests for comment.
The Lexington County Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday it had not received a formal request from Swansea for additional law enforcement services once the town is without its own police force. But a spokesman said sheriff’s deputies regularly provide coverage for smaller communities with few or no police of their own.
“We’re committed to keeping residents and businesses safe and secure across the county,” Captain Adam Myrick with the sheriff’s department said in a statement.
Simmons said the town did not want to do away with its police department, even if it doesn’t have the money to pay its officers right now. She said the council would re-evaluate its financial position in the new year, when more tax revenue is expected to come in, and hopefully Swansea will be in a position to staff its police department then.
“A lot has to do with what we can figure out financially to get us through the end of the year,” she said. “Can we do what we need to do to continue to operate the town basically.”
Swansea has struggled with town finances in recent years, especially at the midway point of the town’s fiscal year in the fall, just before a slew of annual taxes come in at the beginning of the year. Last year, the mayor warned council members the town was down to less than $600 on hand and would struggle to meet all its financial obligations. “The town doesn’t have any money,” McDaniel told a town council meeting at the time.
The town is already in the process of converting its own water department to service from Lexington County’s Joint Municipal Water and Sewer Commission, after a previous study found that needed repairs to the local water system would cost the town of less than 800 people around $15 million.
Charlton had attempted to rescind his resignation, which Simmons credited to “calls, texts, emails from all the people who didn’t want him to leave.” Because the town council had not previously voted to accept Charlton’s resignation, the councilwoman was hopeful he would be able to continue in the position without further action from the council. But the town’s finances ultimately made that impossible, she said.
“We’re trying to make a decision as a council,” Simmons said, “so all of us will be aware of what is going on going forward.”
This story was originally published October 1, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
.jpg)