The State endorsement: Our choice for Lexington County sheriff

The first Lexington County sheriff in recorded South Carolina history was appointed in 1806. Thomas Herbert served a single year, lived and worked in a small courthouse and jail facility in what is now Cayce, and oversaw a staff of one — himself.

Now the department has 460 employees and a $55.5 million budget, and if Sheriff Jay Koon wins and serves a new four-year term, he would become the second-most tenured sheriff in county history, behind only disgraced James Metts’s record 42 years.

First, Koon will have to defeat two opponents in the June 11 Republican primary. The winner will be sworn in in January because no Democrat or third-party candidate emerged. Koon’s adversaries are both former Lexington County sheriff’s deputies. Alan Driggers retired as a lieutenant after 24 years with the department in 2020. Billy Warren spent seven years as a deputy then worked 25 years with the South Carolina Highway Patrol before retiring in 2017. Both say they are best suited to improve staffing issues and caller response times, but neither have turned around a department as Koon has.

Koon worked for 20 years with the town of Lexington’s police department then joined the Sheriff’s Department in 2014. He was first elected and sworn in as sheriff in 2015, and he deserves credit for restoring trust and transparency to a troubled department. When he arrived nine years ago, Metts had been indicted and removed from office. Metts would later plead guilty to a federal bribery conspiracy charge, and have his name removed from the jail and sheriff’s office that bore it. Given Koon’s achievements, The State Editorial Board thinks he deserves four more years running the department.

Koon said existing recruitment and retention issues are improving. He cited internal data to say hiring was up 48% and separations down 52% last year. Public figures show the department hired 65 people after 900 applied and 220 interviewed. Koon knows more staff and faster response times are imperatives and said improved use of technology and triage decisions will help. “Obviously more people working and answering service calls is important,” he told us. It can be hard to tell the true scope of a problem during a heated political campaign, but Koon both admits one exists and has a plan to address it.

During the sheriff’s race, Driggers and Warren are highlighting the negative. Driggers is campaigning on increasing starting pay for deputies, increasing staffing to keep pace with county growth and revamping benefits packages for first responders. Warren said he wants to hire more personnel to reduce response times, improve health care and retirement benefits and allow the public to observe training programs. In our board’s view, neither made the case that Koon has to leave office for improvements to be made.

The reality is that recruitment and retention is a problem across law enforcement, stemming from pay issues and a challenging environment nationally after high-profile cases of police brutality, questions about overpolicing and calls to defund the police.

As always, any sheriff’s job performance boils down to one basic question: Are you safer than you have been? The answer in this county is, generally, yes.

Many reported crime categories are down year over year, with steep drops in 2023 from assault and battery to burglary, robbery and motor vehicle thefts. Homicides and rapes did increase in 2023, but that number has held fairly steady even as the county’s population exploded with the state’s. “We have held the line when it comes to crime even with the tremendous growth we have experienced,” Koon told us in an interview.

He’s right. And he’s being recognized outside Lexington County for his efforts. The South Carolina Sheriffs’ Association named him its 2023 sheriff of the year. To his credit, Koon said that honor was due to his staff’s hard work. That’s what good leaders do.

The State Editorial Board endorses Jay Koon for Lexington County sheriff.

This story was originally published May 31, 2024 at 8:00 AM.