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SC State Constables

4K views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  htfiremedic 
#1 ·
I sent this to my State Rep. Give me ideas if this is good or bad!

All right, I have a bare bones idea that may be a lot more simple than it sounds.
The State Constables have several levels, correct? Use them and open it up to military retired and honorably discharged, Police that have expired or retired, federal officers that have left in good standing and CWP holders.
Approach North American Rescue with a FILOT deal to provide the vests, Med kits and other needed items.
If schooling is required, allow lottery funds to consider it higher education.
The LEO's that step up have already had the Academy Portion and just need legal updates. The Military will bring a more specialized skill set, give them an accelerated basic in their home county somehow. Sleep at home and be on time the next day for class.
Federal will bring a special skill set as well.
CWP holders maybe the accelerated basic or have the trainers at local agencies teach the class. Allow testing at their local agency or college. Allow Military to use GI Bill for their schooling, they get paid and the state gets some money back for etching them.
Change the Constables to one class. Change the rules from 104 hours a year, to one weekend a month and two weeks a year. Pay a fair wage for training, to cover their time away from work and have their employers make up the difference, to make this an incentive to work. There are enough training centers around the state(military included) to do advanced training, or during their 2 weeks have them train with their County LEO agencies. Cities and Counties will benefit from this and they will get it for no cost. Firearms could be procured from agency upgrades. Say they go from a Glock .40 cal Gen 1 to a Gen 2, have the agencies give them to SLED and have them issue to each Constable. Have a County Command Staff, or Zone them in a DNR hunt zone. Stay with statewide jurisdiction and after a certain, agreed upon time, allow them to operate on their own, to supplement agencies that are low on manpower. Require attendance at training days and reduce the hour per year.
As I see it, it is a win/win for the state. You get more boots on the ground in each county, the counties, cities and State of SC lead the way in establishing a model to be followed by others and you get the knowledge and experience of 100's of volunteers for little cost to the tax payer.
Tell me what you think. I have been putting a lot of thought into this. If you go under the National Guard, the response will be slower.
On to communications. We would need a VHF repeater system that could be integrated with Pal 800. I believe any radio will work and we can purchase a radio for anywhere from $45- whatever they want to spend. When a problem arises a local agency can call Pal 800 and have them link the systems until the emergency is declared over by the Leader of the unified command system, JOC or whichever system they choose.
Weapons issued should be common, so that if Jim is low on ammo, Joe can toss a magazine to him.
Have each person qualify yearly on shooting and driving. Here, we could ask to borrow the test track on Hwy 39 for a block of time.
The state owns land all over, build a few inexpensive crisis houses and a shooting range in each county.
Allow the public to use the ranges when not in use by the State Constables, and disallow them use to the crisis houses. If built right, the configuration of the rooms can be changed each time. Have the National guard build these for their weekends and camps.
The Constables could also train with our National Guard for call outs with them, if needed.
Like I said, I have put a lot of thoughts and late nights into this. We know that the threat is growing, we have our own families to consider as well as those of the The Leaders Constituents.
Showing the constituency that the government cares enough to ramp up their protection, while saving tons of money will look great at election time for all of you. I know that this will not happen overnight, however it needs to be as fast as possible to prevent active shooter situations or at least let the bad guys know that we are ready in SC.
We know from San Bernadino, Paris and other situations that they have no regard for human life. We, however, know that the best way to preserve life in an active shooter situation is to stop the shooter, as quickly as possible and by only as much force as necessary.
In my humble opinion, adding to the Constabulary System will be the best option. Easier to call in, especially if we add a channel for paging to each counties radio system and advise where the group needs to muster for the call.
The whole system will work similar to the Reserve program, there will just need to be mor training and dedication.
Thanks for your time,
Steve
Call me when you read through this and tell me what you think!
 
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#2 ·
I read through your idea, and while very good suggestions, not all of them will work. I don't want to be a Debbie Downer and don't want to write a novel, so I'll just add a few comments and you can reply if you have any questions or want more information or whatever.

There are a ton of different TYPES of constables, you're talking about State Constables, specifically Type 3 (uncompensated volunteer). Within that there are two levels, basic and advanced. Basic works with a full-time LEO, Advanced can work alone.

They are already open to anyone (that doesn't have a criminal record), don't need to be prior Mil, LEO, or CWP. The training isn't about tactics, it's more a minimum about law so you don't violate people's rights. There’s not really a need for accelerated training because it basically is very minimal training on laws, that’s pretty much it. That and a firearms qualification, but it’s not firearms training.

You can use GI Bill as training is a class at one of the technical colleges.

Min hours is 120 a year. An agency could organize a certain schedule and only allow Constables to assist that agency if they sign on for that schedule. They could also give old/surplus equipment to Constables. With the structure, control, logistics, etc. an agency would probably just rather have a Reserve unit. Constables are essentially Reserve officers anyway, they just can’t get paid at all (not even for off-duty jobs), but they can work with any agency they’re approved to work with in the state. The training is literally the same as Reserve. An Advanced Constable is the exact same curriculum, a Basic is everything but the last 40 hours or so.

As far as Statewide jurisdiction and working on their own and all that, that’s basically what already takes place. It’s up to the agency if they want to allow them to check out a car and work alone. Also, the State Guard has a Provost Marshall section. They are constables and basically do everything that you proposed including the one weekend a month, two weeks a year type thing.

I do like the Shoot House/MOUT City idea. If I had land, I’d build one myself. I’d love to have one just to train and have fun.

Basically what you propose is already in place except for more continuity and structure for utilization. Constables can basically do whatever an Agency allows them to do which varies greatly. I do like the idea of getting rid of Advanced and Basic and just having an FTO program. The Advanced class costs a bit of money and is very far and few in-between when they’re offered.
 
#3 · (Edited)
After speaking with 4-5 LEO leaders their general consensus is, with some minor changes, it has great merit and could help them greatly. I know that when I was road patrol, I was glad to have the help.
I know about the constable and SG programs as well. However, there are not enough and we need a way to call out. If LAURENS has an active shooter at PC, that will take 80-90% of the assets to Clinton. Then that opens the rest of the 3rd largest County in the state to chaos.
A statewide radio system, already In place, and a Unified command system would help mitigate the responses. There are several unused VHF systems , that can link to PAL 800, are there and unused.
I simply proposed making 1 level of constable that can get paid for some things and brings 1 standard state wide. Also issue or donate older
Radios to them so that the County, in which they reside, can use the fire paging system to notify the Constables and tell them where to muster.
It really is simple and I think that you are reading more into it than need be. Our county has 5-6 on the road at any given time at night, at best. How is that enough to cover a mass casualty call or an active shooter. We have a semi swat team, But that is not enough.
The counties can't fund it, this will deuce the cost of help greatly and give other guys and gals a better opportunity to step up and use a specific skill set that not many have. My Marine buddies think it is a damn god idea. And that as a group, we can help and set a standard for other States. We need to lead in something worthwhile for a change.
If you have idea, post them or copy paste and add them. I will send an improved version and take it to them.
 
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