South Carolina County Considering Using Schools as Police Substations

"The police substations is an idea I came up with about four or five years ago," DeFeo said. "The idea was if they needed substations, we have schools. There are rooms in the schools that police could stop by and use as offices."

Under a proposal announced by Horry County, SC, school board Chair Joe DeFeo during Monday night's board meeting, police officers could use the county's schools as substations.

"The police substations is an idea I came up with about four or five years ago," DeFeo said. "The idea was if they needed substations, we have schools. There are rooms in the schools that police could stop by and use as offices."

DeFeo would like for any uniformed officers to use schools as office space to file reports. Officers could use the school's internet and eat the cafeteria food for free.

Horry County Police Chief Joe Hill told the Myrtle Beach Sun-News he had talked with district officials about the idea, but said his officers are "a mobile field force that stays on the road to detect crime and provide visibility.

"We are not able to stay in one location, precinct or anywhere else, that's not our mission," Hill said. "So, having an office in the schools sounds good, but I just need to manage expectations on how an officer would be in those schools. If we still had [school resource officers], then we wouldn't need satellite offices."

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