Upstate sheriff reports more arrests, lower crime - WYFF Greenville

ANDERSON COUNTY, S.C. —

Operation Community Take Back was the first major crime crackdown operation since Chad McBride took over as Anderson County sheriff.

Between the hours of 3 p.m. Friday and 3 a.m. Saturday, 55 extra deputies patrolled the roads looking for traffic violations and anything suspicious.

There were 25 arrests made during that 12-hour time period, along with 151 traffic stops and 11 arrest warrants served.

"We're really focusing on those areas that do have those higher crimes," Deputy Emily Rochester said during an exclusive interview on Friday. "If you can get the criminal while they're heading to the location they're going to commit the crime, that's really the best form of proactivity that we could ever come up with."

The effort is paying off, according to statistics provided by the Anderson County Sheriff's Office.

There has been a 76.3 percent increase in drug arrests since McBride took office in January.

There were six murders between January and April 2016. This year, there have been three.

Other crimes are seeing decreases as well.

Car break-ins are down by 41.1 percent and burglaries are down 23 percent, according to the statistics.

Rochester said deputies have more of an opportunity to stop cars, knock on doors and look for people with warrants because McBride put more deputies on patrol when he took office.

"This time last year, we were maybe eight people on a shift. I know that my shift was the shortest back then. We now are in the 20s with manpower," Rochester said. "When you triple your manpower, essentially, that's such a great result to see that the crime is going down."

Deputies said there's still work to be done, but they plan to keep doing crime crackdowns like Operation Community Take Back.

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