FLORENCE COUNTY S.C. (WBTW) – If you’ve driven through Florence county lately you probably noticed more police officers in residential areas.
Major Mike Nunn with the Florence County Sheriff’s Office says areas like Hyde Circle are among those targeted “hot spots.”
For people like William Cooper, who has lived on that street for years, that’s no surprise.
“Anything you leave open outside, it can disappear,” says Cooper.
It’s something he’s seen happen to his neighbor.
“He has those big lateral lawn mowers and stuff like that, but he’s gotta keep them locked up because he already had two stolen, so you talking about thirteen and fourteen hundred dollar lawn mowers just disappear,” Cooper mentioned.
The goal of the extra officers is to prevent that from happening again.
“Every now and then you might see two or three. Most of the activity is happening on Cashua Drive and not so much down here,” he said.
But officers say South Cashua drive is also on that growing list of areas to monitor.
Cooper says in the last month, he’s noticed a lot of late night activity, most of it coming from right around the corner at an abandoned gas station.
“I do a lot of walking, especially at night because I don’t sleep well and there is like four or five cars that park at night and it’s almost like a gathering and then they just kind of scope the neighborhood,” explained Cooper.
Even with the additional law enforcement patrolling residents still have concerns about safety.
“When its real dark out front and there’s a lot of women and children that stay out here and I prefer at least have a spotlight out front to make them safe,” Cooper said.
But studies show this model the Florence Sheriff’s Office is using does reduce crime and vehicle crashes.
