YCSO: Behind the Badge

This is part one of the hiring process here at the YCSO. We are looking for good people to make great officers.

We are continuously researching the history of the York County Sheriff's Office. In this episode, we share some intriguing discoveries and ask the community for assistance in locating a painting and providing additional information to fill in some blanks from over the 239-year history of the YCSO.

Capt. Tamyra Hogg is the Administrative Captain for the Detention division at the YCSO and a certified law enforcement chaplain. This allows her to serve other law enforcement agencies across South Carolina during critical incidents.

The York County Sheriff's Office is excited to announce its Nationwide Project Lifesaver Program involvement. The Program will be offered free of charge to York County residents who are caring for loved ones with Alzheimer's Disease, autism, Down Syndrome, Traumatic Brain Injury, or other conditions that make them likely to wander away from caregivers.https://www.yorkcountysheriff.com/400/Project-Life-Saver Project Lifesaver is a rapid response program that uses radio frequency tracking technology designed to locate at-risk individuals who suffer from cognitive impairment issues who may wander away from their caregivers and become lost.Those cognitive issues may include Alzheimer's, Autism, and Down Syndrome.

The second part of our podcast with Sheriff Tony Breeden. #YCSONews

In this episode, we speak with York County Sheriff Tony Breeden. This is the first of two episodes. #YCSONews

Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday travel is ramping up. In this episode we talk with Traffic Enforcement Unit Sgt. Ryan Quinn about how you can get you to your holiday parties safely.

Rep. Brandon Guffey's son Gavin died by suicide after being a victim of Sextortion. Now it's Guffey's mission to end sextortion and similar scams, then hold those who commit these crimes accountable.

If you live in South or North Carolina, Florida, and Georgia, there is a good possibility you know someone affected by Hurricane Helene. In this podcast, we talk with Capt. Solomon, who was deployed with seven other deputies to Black Mountain, NC, and what they saw and accomplished

We're talking about the sinister, awful people who take advantage of victims of storm damage. Storm Chasers, no, we're not talking about folks like Tyler Owen in the movie Twisters. We saw it when the hail storm popped up this past summer and also when Hurricane Debby poured buckets of rain on us back in May. Beware of Storm Chasers.

Sheriff Tolson implemented a health and wellness plan. Hiring a psychologist clinician and setting up Sgt. Chris Doty will be the health and wellness coordinator. We're taking care of our mental health, and now we're taking care of our bodies.  A few months ago, the YCSO hired Charlotte Helms as a part-time fitness coordinator.

Sept. 15-21 is National Forensic Science Week. This week's podcast discusses the YCSO Technical Services Division, all aspects of forensics, from biological to digital, and new innovations coming to the YCSO to help combat crime efficiently. #YCSONews

In this episode, K9 Unit Cpl. Travis Shealy discusses how time is crucial for success in locating missing people with dementia or Alzheimer's. Citizens can help K9 tracking teams by staying where they are and using their eyes, while K9s use their noses.

Crime Stoppers of York County is looking for sponsors to help train York County officers, bank executives, and business owners about cybercrime investigations. Contact Cindy Downing, Crime Stoppers of York County compliance officer, at Cindy.Downing@outlook.com. For more information, visit the website at crimestoppersofyorkcounty.com.

In this podcast, we highlight some of the missing persons cases our detectives are working on, some dating back to the 1970's.

YCSO Staff Attorney Heather Mouzon plus Fire Arms Investigator and CWP Instructor Buddy Brown break down the fairly new Constitutional Carry Law in SC.

The Beat of Life is a group of Nashville song writers who've worked with names like Jelly Roll, Dolly Parton, and Tim McGraw. Those artists are on their 5th trip to the York County Detention Center to help inmate participants write and perform songs to help our inmates possibly turn their lives around. The Beat of Life is a Nashville-based non-profit with the mission to bring therapeutic songwriting and music programs to our most vulnerable and marginalized, including the incarcerated, those battling mental illness, addiction, and suicide, and our most at-risk youth To create both individual and collective healing, unity, and transformation through the power of music Their motto, "Because Music Can Save a Life." Learn more at thebeatoflife.org.

Assistant Chief Jail Administrator Rodney Hope talks about three scams that have surfaced involving bonding inmates out of the detention center.

May 5–10 is National Correctional Officers Appreciation week. We talk with Sgt. Bobby Heath about his 15-year career as a YCSO detention officer.

Sexual assault can be extremely traumatic for anyone. Today we talk about the highly trained SANE nurses at Piedmont Medical Center who help our detectives gather crucial evidence to help investigate sexual assault cases.

This week, we speak to three recent YCSO Citizens Academy graduates on their experiences during the 6-week program.

The YCSO Citizen's Advisory Board will be comprised of citizens of diverse backgrounds from our four geographic districts.  The purpose of creating this group is to strengthen the ties between our agency and the citizens we serve.  The role of the Citizens Advisory Board is to bring concerns from the community to command staff and offer suggestions about ways that we can better serve our community.  We tried to accomplish this same objective by holding community meetings in the four districts, but the low attendance at those meetings did not justify all of the work that went into hosting the meetings. 

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. It is a tough subject to talk about, but it's a necessary one. Kerby McKinnell the Sexual Trauma Services Coordinator at Safe Passage in Rock Hill, and Capt. Mike Ligon of the Catawba Nation Tribal Police to discuss an upcoming training for those who work with victims of sexual assault. To learn more visit safepassagesc.org.

The YCSO 2023 annual report is out. Follow this link: https://www.yorkcountysheriff.com/DocumentCenter/View/2376/2023-Annual-Report - to read along as we discuss the report on this week's YCSO: Behind the Badge.

We open up the cold case file to discuss the oldest cold case and a new cold case Detective Lanelle Day is working on at the YCSO.

In this bonus episode of YCSO Behind the Badge, we talk about scams. More specifically, the types of scams where suspects impersonate real YCSO employees. We discuss how to identify a scam and how to avoid becoming a victim.

This week, we talk with Sgt. Amy Smith of the YCSO Special Victims Unit (SVU) about the work that detectives do that's unlike what you may see portrayed on TV shows. *Note: Apologies for the poor audio quality.

Lt. Kelly Lovelace is the supervisor of the YCSO office of professional standards. She and her team work hard each day to recruit and retain officers that can adhere to our core values of character, honesty, accountability, integrity, and most of all, respect.

Sgt. Michael Hewitt talks about our 7th detention officer hiring event, and how Sheriff Kevin Tolson is working diligently in 2024 to retain those officers we hire.

We talk with District Commander Lt. David Frye about his 39-year career. As part of his duties, Lt. Frye helps several non-profit organizations identify and locate homeless people in Rock Hill, and in turn, he and his deputies help those in need get the services available to them.

Sheriff Kevin Tolson talks about 2023 and what's coming in 2024.

For 14 years, Mel Thomas, in her off time and using donations, has purchased Christmas presents for the less fortunate children in York County. Listen to how you can help on this episode of YCSO Behind the Badge.

Corporal Atarsha Stinson has been a detention officer for just 18-months, her positive attitude has made an impact on inmates and her career advancement at the York County Sheriff's Office.

40 Bloodhounds and their police K9 handlers from Alabama, Indiana, Georgia, Virginia, South Carolina, and North Carolina converge on Kings Mountain State Park for the 24th Police Bloodhound Winter Training Seminar.

In this edition of Behind the Badge, we ride with four deputies who have been on the road as enforcement deputies for a little more than a year. We talk about their experiences and opportunities they've discovered since becoming part of the YCSO family.

At the beginning of the holiday traffic season, we talk with our traffic enforcement unit about safety tips and the new Carolina Squat Law that just passed.

If it wasn't for the hard working people in the Evidence Control Unit to catalog and maintain crime evidence, our detectives and investigators wouldn't be able to follow up and then solve any case, more or less get them to court in front of a jury.

In 1992, an infant girl was found inside a plastic Sears shopping bag floating in the Catawba River between Fort Mill and Rock Hill. For 29 years, leads on the case ran cold until science caught up to help bring closure to the murder of Baby Angel Hope.

Back in August 2023, we created a funny little video that was going around on social media mimicking an ASMR Bentley luxury car video. Here's the link - https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwNizP3KZAK/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== The video quickly went viral on Instagram, Facebook and Tik Tok. Through the video, we received a lot of questions about the patrol car accessories. In this YCSO Behind the Badge we answer some of those questions. You can also watch this podcast on our YouTube page.

For 16 years, the Sheriff's Foundation of York County has hosted a golf tournament at Springfield Golf Club in Fort Mill as the main fundraising endeavor for student scholarships, the Mike Doty officer assistance fund, and other student law enforcement career programs. This year, we thank Smart Communications and Founders Federal Credit Union for being our presenting sponsors. This podcast was recorded at the tournament.

If you like numbers and statistics, this episode of YCSO: Behind the Badge is for you. See the 2022 Annual Report for yourself on our website via this link - https://www.yorkcountysheriff.com/DocumentCenter/View/2132/2022-Annual-Report

Sheriff Kevin Tolson introduces the new Director of Employee Wellness, Dr. Nikki Vasilas and the important role she has within the sheriff's office.

Catching you up on the highlights during the month of May here at the YCSO.

The days of January 16 and 17 changed the lives of many law enforcement officers in York County forever, but not more than Buddy Brown and Randy Clinton. On this episode we catch up with Brown and Clinton 5-years later.

In late 2021 Sheriff Kevin Tolson wanted to make a focus on building and maintaining positive relationships with members of our community. He created a new position of Community Relations Liaison. On this edition of Behind the Badge we meet Community Relations Officer Cpl. Johnathan Gilbert. #YCSONews

Thanksgiving traffic safety with Sgt. Ryan Quinn of the YCSO Traffic Enforcement Unit.

On this edition of YCSO Behind the Badge we talk with YCSO Chief Jail Administrator John Hicks about a new program to hire good people to become great detention officers.

Sheriff Kevin Tolson discusses topics ranging from medical marijuana bill, the fentanyl crisis, and hiring great officers.

On this edition of YCSO Behind the Badge - We are sharing a recent Crime to Court episode which features Sheriff Kevin Tolson, Sheriff Mark Lamb from Pinal County Arizona and South Carolina SLED Chief Mark Keel. The discussion is on SC Senate Bill 150 on medical marijuana

Tis the season to go stealin'. December is prime time for criminals to become real life Grinches. This week on the podcast we talk to our Property Crimes Unit about how crime prevention begins with you.

Major Robbie Hudgins Retires after 40 years of service.