Not my letter but I am posting this as it appeared in today's edition of The Item. Paragraphs are your friend.

I have redacted the writer's name.

https://www.theitem.com/stories/sumters-crime-rate-is-underreported,384316?

I have been providing evidence to the mayor and city council for over a year that Sumter's Police Department has a culture of not doing police reports for criminal activity. They have done nothing but lie about the facts of my complaints and have told me not to contact them anymore. The police have continually refused to do police reports for me for large thefts, and other people have told me that they have had the same problem. Every time, after much arguing and complaining, the police end up doing a report and agree that one should have been done earlier. I have been wondering what the significance of the police report was but assumed it had something to do with local crime statistics. The other day I discovered that SLED requires that all local law enforcement criminal incidence reports are to be reported directly to SLED under 73-30 (Uniform Crime Reporting). Our Police Department is obviously circumventing this law by refusing to do reports, which is what occurred when I have attempted to report criminal activity. Our city council has a direct responsibility to oversee the police department. Our local politicians have refused to do anything. This behavior has accelerated the crime in this community and has taken all deterrence to commit crime away. This is why we are hearing about more violent crimes which are occurring every week. We as citizens need to hold these politicians accountable if we want to live in a community that is not riddled by crime.

Downtown Sumter has always and I mean always been a shithole and the armpit of the state.  

There are many reasons for this and it isn't the LEOs who are committing or covering up for the crime rate.  It is due to the citizens.  They are criminals.  Until someone figures out how to fix the citizens there will be no fix for the crime rate.  In other words.  Shitty people make for a shitty place to live.

You've obviously never been to Allendale. Or Bamberg. Or Bishopville.

While it is doubtful that downtown Sumter esp. Main St. South of Liberty will ever be anything other than a strip of closed-down storefronts it is a lot better than it was 10 years ago and Greg Thompson has been the driver for most of the revitalization. Yeah, I know...he owns pretty much EVERYTHING new downtown: The brewery, Hamptons, The Sidebar, etc., etc. etc. but it's still better than it was. There was a time when NOBODY went downtown after 5pm.

But to address the letter writer's complaint yes, the Sumter PD has long been suspected of underreporting crime stats and downplaying the extent of gang activity. Gotta attract those retirees!

I am an SC native.  I know all about those areas.  

No matter how much is spent on main, you have to fix the entire community to help with the issue.  I really like what main has turned into and go often as you know but it still doesn't make the people of Sumter better people.  Be very careful going to your car from SOB or J OGrady's.

Bamberg is a shining beacon on a hill compared to Denmark or Blackville.

Denmark is awful, I concur.

Back around 2002 or so Sumter was rated in the top ten cities in crime for a city of its size/population. The then worthless liberal chief of police (Patty Patterson) tried to explain away the numbers saying the weren't representative. All I can say is that the date was compiled by the FBI. Draw your own conclusions.

I can speak with some authority on this subject. I am a former Sumter Police Officer and the accusation of under reporting is absolute bullshit. My shift alone when I left was writing an average of 30-ish reports per night, and that number does not include traffic collisions or citations issued. That number is for a 9 Officer shift that is 12 hours in length.

I’ll be absolutely transparent here. If an officer can get out of a call without writing a report, he / she will. Nobody wants to write another report for a stolen bottle of hand soap that happened three days ago (I wish I could make that up).

No, I’m not going to write a report about kids shooting off fireworks on July 3 because your cat can’t sleep.

No, I’m not writing a report because the city waste department picked up your “herby curby” (that was a new expression to me) without asking you. That’s not stealing.

No, I’m not writing a report because the ghosts in your house are stopping you from getting out of your bed. I can’t arrest the ghosts.

Someone vandalized your house?  Yes, I’ll write a report, take photos and dust for prints. Someone broke into your car?  Yes, I’ll write a report, take photos and dust for prints. Someone did a drive by on your house?  Hell yea I’m coming and my boys are coming too. That’s the shit we love. We’re all coming. And yea, we’ll write a report, take pictures and then go look for a subject.

I left the department last year. I don’t have a negative word about to say about the department, but policing just wasn’t for me.

PS- every situation I mentioned above actually happened to me.

Ok, you had me until the ghost thing. We all know they call the “haints” in South Carolina.