Kershaw County Sheriff Matthews cited in lawman award

Kershaw County Sheriff Jim Matthews, known for his aggressive and innovative approaches that target illegal drugs and drunk drivers, has won the S.C. Elks Association’s 2016 Enrique “Kiki” Camarena award.

Matthews, 64, one of the state’s first sheriffs to buy and use body cameras for his deputies, was given the award at the Ellks recent conference in Myrtle Beach.

Camarena believed that “one person can make a difference” and Matthews, who took office in 2011, has shown that he is making a difference, the Elks said in a press release.

Camarena was a DEA undercover agent who in 1985 was targeted, tortured and killed in Mexico by cartel drug traffickers.

“I am very, very, very honored to receive this,” said Matthews in an interview. “There are thousands of officers who are dedicated to keeping drugs out of our children’s hands. I just happen to be one of them.”

Matthews also said, “I have always operated under the theory that almost all crimes are driven by illegal drugs, or illegal use of legal drugs. They are just about the common denominator in everything we deal with.”

An Elks press release noted that Matthews, like Camarena, was a DEA agent. When Matthews was in Thailand in the 1990s going after illegal heroin refineries, he, like Camarena, was targeted by a drug hit squad but escaped because U.S. intelligence learned about the plot and warned the future sheriff.

In the middle of his second four-year term, Matthews said, “There’s still more I’d like to do.”