Academy director faces many obstacles, criticisms

COLUMBIA -- Uncertain funding. Cramped and aging buildings. Police cadets who can barely read or finish an agility course.

These are some of the challenges Hubert Harrell and his staff face as they try to move the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy forward after several seasons of government neglect.

The agency, tasked with training and monitoring some 16,000 law enforcement officers in South Carolina, once was a shining star in its field, a model for other states to follow. But years of inattention and under-funding took their toll.

Dormitories fell into disrepair. Advanced classes were cut. Vital record-keeping slid into disarray, allowing problem officers to continue working in law enforcement. And South Carolina began to lag far behind other states in the amount of training officers receive before they hit the streets.

Harrell, a Navy veteran and former police officer who became the academy's director last year, is working to restore the agency's luster. In a time of declining budgets, he's looking to improve programs and efficiency, expand training and mentoring and better prepare police for today's challenges.

"My goal is to get this academy up into the top five in the United States," Harrell said. "It can be done. You just have to be willing to work at it."

Some law enforcement officials remain dubious, and they question whether a single academy has the resources to fully meet the training needs of some 550 law enforcement agencies across the state.

"What they are doing is protecting a failing program," said Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner, who wants to open his own training program. "They are protecting a dinosaur."

Harrell insists that's not the case. He points to a planned $12 million training "village" for new cadets that will include more classroom space, dormitories, a gym and other features on the academy's 292-acre campus. The village, slated to open in 2012, is expected to greatly increase training offerings for recruits and seasoned officers, Harrell said.

"I can't change the past," he said. "It is what it is. I'm just trying to make a difference."

At the same time, academy officials are calling on police agencies to do a better job preparing their officers to succeed at the academy. About 1,200 students attend the academy each year and about 950 pass -- a failure rate of nearly 21 percent. Each failure represents thousands of dollars lost.

Instructors have dealt with recruits who have difficulty driving or are physically unable to pass the agility course. One female recruit had trouble working her own gun. Tests also determined that nearly 20 percent of police, jail and dispatching recruits who showed up at the academy last year were reading below a 10th-grade level.

"It's sad, but we've had high school graduates struggle to get through our academy," said York County Sheriff Bruce Bryant, who sits on the panel that oversees the agency. "What that says about our public school system, I'm not sure."

Out from the shadows

In many ways, the academy still is trying to recover from the dozen years it spent under the control of the Department of Public Safety, competing for attention and resources with that agency's other divisions. State lawmakers set the academy free in 2006 and furnished money to refurbish buildings and equipment. The move came after The Post and Courier's "Tarnished Badges" series detailed the academy's shortcomings.

The agency remains largely dependent on the ebb and flow of court fees and fines for funding. It has an annual budget of $22 million, of which about $7 million is earmarked for capital projects. Kentucky's police academy, modeled after South Carolina's, receives nearly twice that amount, authorities said.

Some law enforcement officials argue that the state has grown too large and has too many law enforcement officers for a single academy to meet the demands for training and instruction. A 2007 study from the University of South Carolina found the nine weeks of training provided by the academy was the third lowest in the nation. Most states require 15 weeks or more.

"Nine weeks of training is woefully inadequate to be a police officer these days," Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen said. "That needs to be expanded significantly."

A new approach

The Charleston Police Department is among the agencies that have pushed in recent years to open regional or satellite training centers to expand opportunities. Academy officials have resisted this approach, favoring a centralized facility that provides a uniform level of training to officers from departments large and small. The academy is sensitive to anything that might siphon funds.

Tanner, the Beaufort County sheriff, is facing resistance to his plan to create a 26-week training program for his recruits at no cost to the state. He said the academy seems more interested in protecting its turf than meeting the needs of today's officers.

"Instead of reaching out and trying to make improvements, they are standing back and saying 'We want to protect our program,' " he said. "Protect it from what? Improvement?"

Former academy Director William Neill resigned last year and now works for Tanner. He said Tanner's recent experience is nothing new. "There is a real reluctance at the academy to accept change."

Harrell said that couldn't be further from the truth. He and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Training Council, which oversees the academy, are working to increase the academy's basic training to a 12-week program. They expect to break ground on the training village in January. The staff already has made strides to reduce the wait time to new recruits into classes. And they are offering more advanced training, such as accident investigation classes, which disappeared during tight times, Harrell said.

Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon said the changes only go so far. "This is almost solely a discussion of playing catch-up."

Harrell said he understands that people want more progress. "But you can't have champagne taste on beer money."

Watching for problems

Academy officials also are trying to do a better job tracking and monitoring police officers already on the streets. The academy functions as a vital clearinghouse of law enforcement officers' employment records for local police agencies to review before making hiring decisions. But for years, its records system was a mess.

The agency has nearly finished upgrading its 12-year-old computerized records system, so antiquated that the only technician familiar with its inner workings has retired. Academy officials also are making greater efforts to investigate misconduct reports to ensure officers are treated appropriately and fairly, Harrell said.

Between January and late July, Harrell reviewed 132 cases where officers were let go for misconduct. Of those, he found 108 officers eligible to be rehired in law enforcement and 15 eligible for rehiring with probation. Nine officers were banned from police jobs, according to academy records.

Some police officials were surprised at the low number of officers banned for misconduct issues. Among the cases drawing attention was that of Dorchester County sheriff's Lt. John Smith, who was barred from law enforcement in 2005 after an internal investigation found he roughed up a handcuffed suspect and lied to cover it up. Harrell restored Smith's police powers on a probationary basis this year after questioning whether some other agenda had been at work in the deputy's firing.

Beaufort County Chief Deputy Michael Hatfield said Harrell has placed some officers on probation and required others to get psychological counseling but that there appears to be nothing in state law that allows him to take such measures. Harrell disagrees, and his staff maintains that Neill took similar actions during his term.

Harrell said he has been around law enforcement long enough to realize that politics and personal beefs can play a role in a firing or bad recommendation. He considers it his duty to get to the bottom of things.

So when an officer was fired for soliciting unauthorized discounts from merchants last year, Harrell allowed him to stay in law enforcement with two years probation. But when a detention officer was fired for submitting false doctor's notes to ditch work, Harrell banned her return, citing dishonesty.

"A lot of these are not cut and dried. There are gray areas," he said. "It's common sense to me to ask these questions when you're making a decision about someone's livelihood."