Florence County Sheriff Kenney Boone appeared before council and requested pay raises for his agency.
This comes after two law enforcement officers were killed on October 3rd at the Vintage place neighborhood.
“The only time we get praised is when you need us,” said Sheriff Kenney Boone.
Thursday’s Florence County council meeting was packed with nearly 50 law enforcements to support Boone. During the meeting Boone started by sharing an emotional video in memory of the 7 officers shot.
“We have detention officers who take about $340 a week and we have deputies who take about $400 a week,” said Boone.
Boone said he’s invested a lot of money in his deputies and feels that he’s losing them to neighboring counties that pay more.
“The FBI tells me this is the largest crime scene they have worked in this nation. This agency is nationally recognized,” said Boone.
County council chairman Kent Caudler said they would need to have authority to raise taxes by 5.4 mills per year to fulfill Sheriffs Boone’s request.
“We would love to say yeah go ahead and just do it on the next payroll, but we can’t. We are going to figure out how we can get there as soon as we can,” said Caudler.
Members from county council agreed with Boone, and council member Steven DeBerry said he would like the Florene County Sheriff’s office to be the highest paid department in the state, but it’s not as simple as it seems because the problems start with the state legislature.
“We know there’s a need, we know they’re underpaid. We don’t have the capacity or the ability to raise taxes enough to fund that right now,” said Caudler.
The Florence county council public safety and justice committee plan to talk about more money for the Sheriff’s office at its December meeting.
