Police chief discusses homeless abuse allegations

By April M. Silvaggio  

OCTOBER 15, 2009 3:43 a.m. (0)

Allegations of officer misconduct resulting in investigations by state and federal law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, didn’t come from the street.

Instead, they were ferreted out by an internal system of checks and balances designed to alert agency officials to instances where policies and procedures aren’t followed, Greenville Police Chief Terri Wilfong said.

“I think this shows the system works,” the chief said this week.

Four officers have resigned as a result of what initially began Sept. 25 as an internal investigation conducted by the police department’s Internal Affairs Unit.

The chief said she was initially notified by one of her commanders that a problem had surfaced with standard paperwork procedures not matching up.

In addition to incident reports, tickets and arrest warrants, officers are also required to complete paperwork like field interview cards each time he or she has contact with a citizen.

Those cards, completed by officers across the state, are by law sent to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division in an effort to prevent racial profiling across the state.

“We have policies and procedures that have to be followed each time an officer has contact with a citizen, whether an arrest is made or not,” the chief said. “In this case, we’d see this over here, but nothing over there. So initially, we thought it was a policy violation with appropriate paperwork not being filled out.”

Three days into the internal investigation, she was told by officials in Internal Affairs that the problem could potentially have criminal implications, she said.

“I was told they weren’t sure what we were working with, but that there was definitely more to the story,” she said. “At that point, I called SLED and asked them to investigate. They sent in a captain and two investigators.”

Agents from SLED took over the case Sept. 29, said Jennifer Timmons, a spokeswoman for that agency. The U.S. Justice Department entered the case at the request of SLED, FBI Public Affairs Specialist Denise Taiste said.

Since that point, the chief said she hasn’t been kept apprised as to what the investigation has uncovered. That wouldn’t be appropriate, she said.

“I’ve been told they will inform me when it is complete,” she said. “I will be invited to attend the press conference when they announce the end of the investigation, and any criminal charges.”

She said this week she hasn’t heard any specific allegations involving the abuse, but said she is working with those who work with the homeless and has asked them to contact her anytime they hear of a problem.

So far, no one has called to report anything.

She said she believes the investigation will ultimately show the problem as limited to the four officers who have resigned, and that many of the men and women who work for her agency are known for helping the homeless.

She’s heard stories, she said, about her police officers buying clothes for men and women on the street, and given the homeless rides to soup kitchens. She talked about one instance where an officer stopped by a fast-food restaurant to buy a burger for a homeless he’d arrested for panhandling because he didn’t’ want the man going to jail hungry.

“I know of another case where a homeless man told one of our officers he wanted to go to jail, and the officer told him that he hadn’t done anything he could be arrested for,” the chief said. “So the guy punched the officer in the face.”

The man was cold, he had no food, and he wanted a hot shower.

He knew he could get those things at the jail, she said.

“We’re stuck in the middle,” she said. “Merchants don’t want the homeless aggressively panhandling. Residents sometimes are fearful of them. The criminal element hides among them.”

A few years ago, a man wanted on a charge of murder in the death of his girlfriend was arrested sleeping under the breezeway outside Triune Mercy Center, a non-denominational mission church to the homeless on Rutherford Street.

Since the investigation began, the chief said she has assigned some of her most experienced officers to patrol the beats most frequented by the city’s homeless in an effort to calm fears and rebuild bridges.

“We’ve got to try to build the bridges back,” she said. “I’ve met with the officers and told them that it is tough right now, but that we are a good department with high integrity. We will survive, but people will say things. We just have to be a little thick-skinned right now.”

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