Richland County sheriff reports October activity, warns of squad shortages as two vehicles fail

The Richland County Public Safety Standing Committee heard an operational update from Sheriff (speaker 4) on October activity and an urgent fleet problem that could reduce patrol capacity.

"For October, we had 55 bookings in the month," the sheriff said, adding the jail's average population was about 30 and the department logged 702 calls to dispatch, 98 EMS calls, 156 police calls and 20 fire calls in the month. He also reported 414 complaints, 59 citations issued, 19 papers served and 13 transports.

The sheriff said two Ford F-150 patrol vehicles have suffered major engine and timing failures. "One of them is going to be done and out of service that has a bad engine in it," he said, and the other is showing similar timing problems. He said the department had sold three spare vehicles previously and is now down to two backups that may have to be used as primary squads.

Bids for replacement squad cars are currently out, with responses due Monday; the sheriff said three responses had been received so far and staff hoped to expedite ordering and upfitting. "In theory, the parts to build them probably could be here by the time the cars are here," he said, while warning that outfitting can add weeks to availability.

The sheriff also announced a conditional hire: "We interviewed him last week, and extended him a conditional offer," referring to Aaron Frederick, a student at Southwest Tech who has accepted pending final onboarding steps.

Committee members asked about turnaround time for vehicle delivery and upfitting; the sheriff said recent Dodge orders arrived in about two to three months in past cycles but cautioned that lead times can vary and parts availability affects how fast cars can be made road-ready.

The committee took the report as information; no formal action was required on the fleet update.