The Greer Police Department’s Traffic/K-9 unit consists of, left to right, K-9 Handler Jordan Williams with Boss, FTO Tyler Mitchell, Sgt. Randle Ballenger, FTO Clay Anderson and K-9 Handler James Compton with Stryker.Sgt. Randle Ballenger teaches the Girls’ Youth Citizen’s Police Academy radar techniques.K-9 Handler James Compton introduces Stryker to students at Little Footprints Too Daycare.

GPD traffic/K-9 unit serve in tandem

Julie Holcombe's picture
By: 
Julie Holcombe

More than 800 roads crisscross the 22.82 square miles of Greer. They represent six-lane federally-managed roads, such as U.S. 29, state two-lanes roads, such as S.C. 80, and lighter-traveled neighborhood city streets.

The job of preventing congestion on those roads and enforcing safety falls on the City of Greer Police Department’s Traffic/K-9 Unit. Headed by Sgt. Randle Ballenger, the unit consists of Field Training Officer (FTO) Clay Anderson, FTO Tyler Mitchell, K-9 Handler James Compton, and K-9 Handler Jordan Williams.

Ballenger, Anderson and Mitchell are certified as Traffic Safety Officers by the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy, after completing the required 280 additional training hours. The team’s purpose encompasses the threefold principle practiced by the state: engineering, enforcement and education.

“All the enforcement is not going to do any good if you don’t educate the public about the dangers of speeding. All the education doesn’t do any good if you don’t provide some enforcement. Neither one of those are any good if you don’t have engineering and some of the things you can do, like maybe change red light timing…to make it all work,” Ballenger said.

To accomplish those goals the traffic unit is utilizing new technology made available through an $80,000 statewide grant. The funds, received in March 2014, enabled the department to outfit all patrol cars with scanners, printers and computers to allow digital capture of IDs and registrations, expediting the process at a collision scene and allowing interpretation of data through Reportbeam software. The program collects the latitude and longitude of collisions and color-coding them by number of incidents on a city map. Red flags indicate five or more collisions at one location.

“Where you see red arrows is where we target enforcement. When we first started we had some red arrows around Riverside High School there at Suber and Hammett Bridge (roads). Those are gone. We’ve had officers out there working – working on speeding, some of the causation factors for those collisions – and the red arrows are gone,” Ballenger said.

The data not only helps the unit pinpoint areas for traffic enforcement, but also plan engineering improvements. The city is currently discussing solutions for the highly active Buncombe Road/Lancaster Avenue intersection with SCDOT, which is suggesting a hard median be installed.

Reportbeam’s advantages aren’t limited to the police department. Many of the statistics are updated monthly on the cityofgreer.org website. Officer Anderson posts charts and graphs outlining the city’s most dangerous intersections, collisions by day of the week and time of day and collision factors.

“(The data) doesn’t pick on any one age group. Anybody at any moment can be distracted and rear end somebody or get hit,” Anderson said.
Ballenger encourages checking the website often.

“We are able to educate the community in some of the things that are happening and some of the problem areas. If you know that (Highway) 29 and Buncombe (Road) is the most dangerous intersection, maybe people take a little extra caution, or maybe some people will divert and go around there which lessens the traffic which could reduce the collisions,” he said.

With 119 collision calls last month in the city and 498 total traffic fatalities statewide for 2015, the officers continue to stress driver education. The unit teaches the nationally-recognized AAA of Carolinas safety course to all city employees, and is considering adding community classes. The Alive at 25 course is required for all Greenville County Schools students seeking a school parking pass and is sometimes offered as an alternative to points when individuals under 25 are issued traffic citations.

The team has two important messages for drivers and passengers: Slow down and wear seatbelts.

“Slow down. Speed is the number one contributing factor nationwide for deaths on roadways,” Ballenger said. “The old adage it wasn’t the wreck that killed him, it was the sudden stop. That’s true. Your body can only change speed so fast. The seatbelt actually slows the collision down for your body allowing you to slow down slower.”

Four-legged force
As fellow “non-scheduled” officers, the city’s K-9 handlers joined the traffic unit to maximize resources.

German Shepherds Boss and Stryker joined the Greer police force four months ago, making both Williams and Compton first-time K-9 handlers.

“It kind of hits you like I’m with this thing every day. It’s a whole other level of responsibility. It’s one thing to keep your TASER charged, it’s a whole other thing to keep an animal alive,” said Williams, whose K-9 partner is Boss.

Both the handlers and the dogs are required to complete 16 hours of training per month to ensure the K-9’s reliability. The city’s unit averages 30 hours per month–training weekly with a NAPWDA-certified (North American Police Work Dog Association) trainer at Greenville County Sheriff’s Office.

“They make sure we are where we need to be. I honestly feel that their program is one of the best in the state and we want to emulate that,” said Compton, Stryker’s handler.

Boss and Stryker are trained to conduct area and building searches, evidence and narcotics detection, tracking missing and fleeing persons, and promoting public relations. They can detect and alert for marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. Since joining the police department, the K-9’s have assisted in seizing 3.76 pounds of narcotics and $43,000 in funds, and assisted in 56 arrests. They have conducted seven criminal tracks, two of which resulted in the subsequent capture of suspects.

But, there are costs associated with maintaining the four-legged partners, including the $10,000 purchase price for each K-9, as well as personal equipment and car upfits, but Ballenger believes the benefits are far greater.

“I would offset the cost with your grandparent’s missing at two o’clock in the morning. She has Alzheimer’s. What’s the cost factor to you when we show up at your door? It’s nothing. If that dog finds your grandmother, that’s priceless….What’s the cost of human life?”

Boss and Stryker have opened doors to people and neighborhoods that the traditional uniformed officers could not, offering school and civic meetings and demonstrations. Compton said that access could result in even larger dividends in the future.

“They are amazing ambassadors of good faith and good will in the community. If you reach that one person through community outreach–you know the rising cost of prison and jail–you’ve saved $100 grand. I think they’ve paid for themselves the day they walk out of training.”

The K-9’s are expected to have a seven- to 10-year career span. The department receives several donations and volunteer services to help support the program and is considering a 5-K fundraiser in the spring. Groups interested in scheduling a visit with Compton and Stryker or Williams and Boss can e-mail jcompton@cityofgreer.org or nwilliams@cityofgreer.org. The public can also view a video demonstration under the K-9 Unit tab on the city’s website at cityofgreer.org.

jholcombe@greercitizen.com | 877-2076

The Greer Citizen

317 Trade Street Greer, SC 29651

Phone: 1-864-877-2076

Sign Up For Breaking News

Stay informed on our latest news!

Manage my subscriptions

Subscribe to Greer Citizen newsletter feed
Comment Here