Bryant stepping down after 20 years
York County Sheriff Bruce Bryant’s announcement Monday that he plans to retire at the end of the year should not have come as a shock. After all, Bryant, 64, has been sheriff for 20 years and in law enforcement for 40.
This is one of the few occasions when a public official who says he is stepping down to spend more time with his wife, children and grandchildren has some credibility.
Nonetheless, it will be difficult for county residents to say goodbye to such a familiar and respected figure, a man who has been the face and voice of county law enforcement for two decades, a leader who has ushered what had been a relatively small, rural department into the 21st century with all the changes that entails. He will leave a legacy of skillful leadership and devotion to his job that will be hard for a successor to top.
Bryant, a York native, started as a deputy in 1972 at age 20. He rose through the ranks to win the sheriff’s job in 1996, and has been easily re-elected ever since.
Bryant has continuously championed adopting new technology and new law enforcement strategies to improve his department’s performance. As early as 2008, the sheriff’s office participated a program in which digital cameras provided by the 16th Circuit Solicitor’s Office were used by deputies to record arrests at domestic violence cases.
Today, nearly eight years later, body cameras worn by police are on the verge of becoming routine equipment.
In one of his most significant achievements, Bryant lobbied successfully to build a new DNA lab at the sheriff’s office to cut the time it took to process crucial evidence. Local law enforcement agencies had been facing long turnaround times on evidence sent to the State Law Enforcement Division, which increased the backlog of unsolved crimes.
With the new lab, York County became one of only four local agencies in the state processing their own DNA evidence. Instead of sending evidence to SLED in Columbia, which could take as long as a year to do the tests for a low-priority property crime, York County could do it all in-house, thanks largely to Bryant’s campaign for the local lab.
Another significant accomplishment was Bryant’s 2008 launch of a new approach to patrolling and controlling crime in the fast-growing county. Known as PROSTAR, the strategy split the county into four districts with a lieutenant assigned to a single district for all four daily shifts.
That allowed the lieutenant to focus on the crime in one area of the county, not all 685 square miles. It also allowed the department to use a limited number of officers more efficiently and concentrate enforcement where problems existed.
Bryant also was active in law enforcement organizations statewide. In 2006, he was elected president of the S.C. Sheriff’s Association, only the second York County sheriff to earn that honor. In 2008, he was named Sheriff of the Year by the association.
While he had a well earned reputation as an able administrator, Bryant also was a humane leader who served by example. Last year, for intance, Bryant made a point of visiting area Muslims at the rural Holy Islamville community near York and reassuring them that his office would protect them.
That and subsequent visits to the community came as fears of terrorism and distrust of Muslims were heating up, spurred in part by a contentious Republican presidential campaign. Despite the fact that Bryant, too, is a Republican, he steadfastly refused to engage in the fear-mongering, choosing instead to do what he could locally to calm the roiling waters.
We don’t need to bid Bryant farewell right now; he will stay in office for the rest of the year. He also has hinted that he might pursue a seat in the Legislature in the near future.
But Monday’s announcement provides a chance for residents to offer their gratitude for his 40 years of dedicated service.
This story was originally published January 5, 2016 at 8:53 PM with the headline "Bryant stepping down after 20 years."