U.S. Attorney General announces $36 million in grants to South Carolina. Here’s where it’s going.
The nation’s top law enforcement official was in Columbia Wednesday to meet with some of South Carolina’s top state and federal law enforcement officers and to announce a multi-million dollar grant to further the state’s crime fighting efforts.
United States Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the $36 million award to law enforcement agencies and community partners that will go towards a variety of efforts across the state aimed at integrating crime fighting resources, assisting victims and combating violent crime.
“We remain committed to providing our law enforcement and community partners the resources that they need to protect the people and communities of this state,” Garland told a meeting of federal and state agency heads alongside the U.S. attorney for South Carolina, Adair Boroughs.
Among those in attendance were South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel, U.S. Marshal Chrissie Latimore, Columbia police Chief Skip Holbrook, acting IRS Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jamie Kale, Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Cardell Morant, Charleston police Chief Chito Walker, FBI assistant Special Agent in Charge Reid Davis and Myrtle Beach police Chief Amy Prock. Also, DEA Special Agent in Charge Robert Murphy and Special Agent in Charge Bennie Mims.
S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson, South Carolina’s top elected law enforcement official and a frequent critic of the Biden administration, was not invited to the meeting and was not aware that it was happening, according a spokesperson for his office.
Wilson is a strong supporter of former President Donald Trump, and Garland is supervising several ongoing criminal prosecutions of Trump, including one for allegedly fomenting the Jan. 6 insurrection.
While he provided few specifics, Garland highlighted a $3 million grant from the Department of Justice that will go towards a criminal history improvement program, a national effort to improve the quality and accessibility of criminal records throughout the justice system.
Other money will go to an unspecified range of community organizations as well as government and law enforcement agencies to hire more officers, combat drug trafficking and violent crime, support community initiatives and improve services to victims of crimes, including domestic and dating violence, sexual assault and stalking.
While Garland pledged the full support of the justice department was behind the effort to fight violent crime, he emphasized that violent crime was down in South Carolina and nationwide. While South Carolina still has among the highest homicide rates in the country, violent crime rate fell by 5.8% from 2022 to 2023, the third consecutive annual decrease.
Citing a report from the FBI released earlier this week, Garland described a 11.6% drop in homicides nationally in 2023 and “one of the lowest violent crime rates in 50 years.”
“Recent data indicates this trend is continuing,” Garland said.
Garland’s comments come as Trump continues to campaign on the message that violent crime is “through the roof.”
This decline was driven in part by collaboration between federal and local law enforcement agencies, “our indispensable partners,” Garland said.
Examples of successful cooperation that Garland highlighted included the the guilty pleas of six people involved in meth dealing in the Upstate, a ten-year sentence for a Midlands man who provided a syringe containing fentanyl leading to a fatal overdose, and a multi-national effort with Canadian law enforcement agencies to break up a gunrunning ring.
Reporter John Monk contributed to this article.