Greer PD earns statewide honor

The City of Greer Police Department has been recognized by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Officers Association (SCLEOA) with its 2022 Excellence in Law Enforcement Award.

Sponsored by Santee Cooper and presented at SCLEOA’s annual conference held Dec. 8-10 in Myrtle Beach, the Excellence in Law Enforcement Award recognizes the overall activities and achievements of an entire law enforcement agency or department. Major qualifications of the award include effort, innovative service to the community, efficiency and results.  

“This is a tremendous honor and the result of countless hours of work by our staff throughout the year,” Greer Police Chief Matt Hamby said. “Our motto is Policing is a Partnership and that means more than patrolling and managing crime in the community. We take pride in creating and implementing educational and goodwill programs for all members of our community.”

Hamby noted 15 programs that helped his department win the 2022 award:

  • Project Safe Neighborhoods to address gun violence
  • Citizens Police Academy
  • Summer Youth Academy
  • Coffee with a Cop
  • Popsicles with a Cop
  • Community Roll Call
  • Stuff a Cruiser
  • Cops and Gobblers Thanksgiving meal delivery
  • Casting with a Cop
  • Gang Resistance Education and Training (a 10-week program from which 112 fifth graders graduated in 2022)
  • Girls on the Run (with 35 graduates from Crestview Elementary School)
  • Cops for Tots (which served 300 children this month)
  • National Night Out
  • Youth Summit Against Violence         
  • Establishing Minority Scholarships to North Greenville University and Greenville Technical College

 “All of this was accomplished in a year in which we are on track to have a 26 percent increase in calls for service,” Hamby said. “I can’t adequately express my pride in our staff and the support we receive from the City administration and elected officials.”

Created in 1941, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Officers' Association became the Voice of Law Enforcement in South Carolina. Today, more than 7,000 officers, representing every rank in municipal, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies, enjoy the valuable services and benefits provided by SCLEOA.