Fewer murders happened in Richland County last year, as sheriff confirms he wants reelection
Murder and violent crime declined in Richland County in the last year, as longtime Sheriff Leon Lott announced he is running for reelection. It will be the eighth time that Lott, 70, has run for the office.
“If the people of Richland County want me for another four years, I’m going to be here for another four years,” Lott said at a press conference Friday, where he discussed major crime trends in Richland County in 2023.
Key among them was a 27% drop in homicides in Richland County in 2023. The number of homicides fell from 37 in 2022 to 27 in 2023.
The Richland County Sheriff’s Department solved every murder last year, Lott said. It continues a departmental trend of a 100% clearance rate in murders for the past several years.
Standing in front of a list of names of murder victims and a poster board of mugshots of suspects in the killings, Lott credited his deputies, investigators, in-house crime lab and the community for what he described as the department’s “unheard of” clearance rate.
“The community works with us,” Lott said. “It’s the trust that we’ve built over some many years. … They see us as one, one team.”
The reduction in homicides also mirrors a national decline in murders in 2023, after a three-year surge in killings beginning in 2020. The FBI reports that from January to September 2023 murders in America fell by 15.6% percent.
Also following national trends, Lott reported that property crime and violent crime were down in Richland County. The number of guns stolen from cars, which Lott has said drove the surge in shootings in past years, had also declined from 647 in 2021 to 385 in 2023.
Lott credited some of the decline in violent crime to increased attention on what he has called a “catch and release” court system. New rules for magistrates limiting personal recognizance bonds helped reduce crime from repeat offenders, Lott said.
His office also remained committed to providing youth and family services as well as diversionary programs for young offenders, Lott said.
As he pledged to continue the programs and strategies that he said made his department successful, Lott acknowledged that there was more to be done.
One area where crimes actually increased — in step with a much-talked about national spree — was the theft of Kia and Hyundai vehicles, Lott said. In 2021, just 44 Kias and 30 Hyundais were reported stolen. In 2023, that number had roughly tripled to 132 Kias and 87 Hyundais.
The vehicle-specific trend is being driven by a TikTok phenomenon. Videos showing users how to exploit vulnerabilities in the cars’ design to easily hotwire the vehicles led to a rise in so-called “Kia Boys,” teenagers who would post videos of themselves on social media joyriding in stolen Kias and Hyundais.
“I’m not standing up here today jumping up and down saying, ‘We’re successful,’” Lott said. “We’ve got more work to do.”
Who is Leon Lott?
Born and raised in Aiken, South Carolina, Lott joined the Richland County Sheriff’s Department as a patrol officer in 1975.
He has led the department of roughly 900 officers since 1996 when Lott, running as a Democrat, won his first election as sheriff. He has since gone on to win every election for the office. In 2020, Lott won the Democratic primary in Richland County, where the majority of voters lean Democrat, with 71% of the vote.
Lott is also a major general in the South Carolina State Guard. A proponent of physical fitness, he is known for leading workouts for his deputies.
In 2021, Lott was awarded Sheriff of the Year by the National Sheriff’s Association.
This story was originally published January 5, 2024 at 4:08 PM.