• Immediately following the Parkland shootings, discreetly met with Town Council to request that we increase our School Resource Officers so that every single school in Mount Pleasant would be protected. We voted to authorize this in that meeting, and within the week it was done so that all of our children, teachers and staff would be protected.
• After the tragic Mother Emanuel shooting, led the march with well over 10,000 residents holding hands across the Ravenel Bridge to demonstrate that Charleston County would come together against such hate and violence and not allow it to destroy our community.
• After the George Floyd killing as well as the Breonna Taylor shooting in 2020, Chief Ritchie agreed to be interviewed by me about Mount Pleasant Police Department's methods. I wrote a published article which demonstrated that our Chief of Police was already on top of the situation, and Mount Pleasant already had the best methods in use which is why we earned a Gold Star accreditation multiple times under Carl's leadership. You can read the article here.
• When a Group contacted the Town of Mount Pleasant for a permit to stage a protest rally, Carl strongly recommended against allowing the proposed location, which was Towne Centre. He countered by proposing Waterfront Memorial Park, where he knew his first responders could create a safe perimeter to avoid the disaster that happened on King Street in Charleston not long before. The entire area was surrounded by fire trucks, sanitation trucks, and even our SWAT tank. No one was getting outside of that protest area. After several hours of a peaceful protest, the group disbanded. As they did, one of the young men (who was not the BLM leader, but actually a local resident from Summerville) approached Chief Ritchie to thank him for allowing them to express their frustration freely and in peace. He asked Carl if they could kneel to pray together, and Carl, as a man of faith, was more than happy to oblige. After they kneeled and thanked God for the peaceful outcome of the day, they clasped hands, and a picture was taken. That picture was later used by Carl's opponent's backers (even if they are an outside PAC) to claim that Carl "took a knee to the leader of BLM." That is such an outrageous lie, and I know all of the information in this paragraph as fact from being a member of Town Council at the time.
• Carl is an expert at bringing people together to solve problems. Late last year, he arranged a meeting with myself and Layla Luna, the mother whose son Rio inspired a bill that I sponsored which passed the House and Senate this year. It provides families with autistic members a tremendous opportunity to let law enforcement know that someone in a vehicle is autistic or neurodivergent, so they can handle the situation better by turning off sirens, lights, and approaching the car less aggressively. Carl saw the benefit both of protecting our citizens and having our law enforcement and other first responders be better prepared by being alerted with a simple icon on the license tag. He also proposed additional training for law enforcement and other first responders, which I submitted as a second bill that will have to be resubmitted in the coming year.
• In his spare time, Carl coaches children and young adults with special needs to compete in regional Olympics in weightlifting and other sports. The good will and sense of pride and accomplishment this has brought to families in our area is phenomenal.
• Carl has been endorsed by law enforcement leadership and officers all across the state, as well as numerous State House Representatives, former and current Mayors of the cities he has protected in the past and would be responsible for protecting as Sheriff, and the highly respected long-time Sheriff Al Cannon, as well as our top Prosecutor, Solicitor Scarlett Wilson. Believe it or not, this was given as the reason Carl is "backed by the good 'Ole boys." No, actually these are all people in leadership who understand the facts and responsibilities of this job and know for certain that Carl is the best person to be Sheriff.

We have a very unique and special opportunity on Tuesday to elect one of the finest law enforcement leaders you could find anywhere by casting our ballot for Carl Ritchie for Sheriff. He didn't need to do this. After 33 years of an incredibly distinguished career, Carl and his wife Vicky could simply have spent the rest of their days enjoying a peaceful retirement. But Carl felt the call of serving once again after seeing what was happening in Charleston County under the current Sheriff. I am so glad he did, and along with Former Sheriff Al Cannon, Solicitor Scarlett Wilson, and many others, I truly hope voters will realize how important it is that we elect this man as our Republican Nominee on Tuesday.

As a final note, click here to watch a short video from Chief Ritchie's campaign.