Florence in Blue Light: Crime, Safety & Community Trust with Sheriff TJ Joye

Florence County Sheriff TJ Joye joins the Double R Flo-town podcast for a candid, no-nonsense conversation about modern law enforcement, crime trends, juvenile violence, and what public safety really looks like in Florence County, South Carolina.

With over 40 years in law enforcement, Sheriff Joy shares firsthand insight into:

-Recruiting and retaining deputies in today’s climate
-Why perception of law enforcement is at an all-time low
-Juvenile crime, accountability, and the role of parents
-Florence County’s crime statistics — and what they actually mean
-High-profile cases, investigations, and real-world policing challenges
-Why Florence remains a great place to live, raise a family, and grow

This episode goes beyond headlines and social media narratives to explain how law enforcement, county leadership, and community trust intersect — and why context matters when talking about crime.

If you live in Florence, are considering moving here, or just want an honest look at policing today, this is a must-watch conversation.

00:00 Introduction & welcoming Sheriff TJ Joye
01:15 The realities of being sheriff in today’s climate
02:35 Staffing challenges & deputy recruitment
04:45 Public perception of law enforcement
05:13 Rebuilding trust between police and the community
06:37 Crime trends & closing problem areas
08:01 “10 for 10” — solving every murder in 2025
08:49 Juvenile crime, accountability & curfews
10:10 40+ years in law enforcement — what’s changed
12:38 Courts, sentencing & juvenile justice reform
14:10 Is Florence actually dangerous?
15:56 Florence as a place to live & raise a family
18:40 Career reflections & leadership lessons
19:04 A terrifying true story from the road
22:45 Leadership, command staff & setting the tone
23:30 Message to citizens: what helps law enforcement most
24:26 Final thoughts & closing

Transcript

Why The Sheriff’s Job Got Harder

SPEAKER_03 0:12

Double R Flow Town Reeves, we have the busiest man in the PD.

Reeves 0:17

Sheriff TJ Joy, we're delighted to have him. That's what this podcast is about, Robert. We want to bring both the good and the challenging to Florence and to the residents, to the whole surrounding counties. And Sheriff, we're delighted to have you here today to tell us, you know, what life in your seat is like, both the good and the bad.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

Thank you so much for coming.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

No, thank you all for having me. I really appreciate it. Oh, good guys. I really I'm really I'm honored for y'all to ask me to come. It's it's a tough job. And I say that things have changed so much in society as a whole since I started back in 85 to this day in time. Um I've been in the seat for five years. Um it's it's what's scary to me is us trying to attract and retain people that want to do law enforcement now. Because that's been one of our biggest tasks is to retain and we've and listen, the county council, the chair, they have gotten us tremendous amount of equipment, money. And um, we're when I started, I it was in the 30,000. Now we're 50, 57, 58, somewhere along there. And I'm gonna ask for more because it's it's a big it's 804 square miles of county.

SPEAKER_03 1:32

That's what people don't understand.

Reeves 1:34

And it's full of hail. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's full of hail. Robert and I were at an event you spoke at, which is last year, and you were speaking about the increase in salary you have been able to get. Right. And again, they need more. All of you need more, and I'm I'm thankful for that. Those are the things that I think citizens want our tax dollars to go towards is public safety.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

That's your that's we're servants to the public. And one of the biggest tasks that I've had is to generate that into the young people. You're you're a servant. Look, I work for y'all night and day. And I've made that clear when I took this seat. Is it aggravating my phone at times? Yes, it is. I don't like to go anywhere out of town. Okay. I don't like to do that. Because when something not that I listen, I've got a tremendous command staff that I love very dearly. They do a great job.

Staffing, Pay, And Retention Realities

Reeves 2:35

But I'm gonna be there when the stuff gets bad. Wow. So what would you say are the biggest challenges you're facing right now as sheriff?

SPEAKER_01 2:46

I I would think with the salary we have getting more to and on a good note, when I took office, we had like four or five per shift. Now we've got 12 to 13, and we got I've just hired uh in the last three weeks, six more deputies. Okay, good. And some were already trained, and that's that's the task at hand. You hire some and they can't make it. We have a four-week academy or trial with us prior to sending them up there because I'm I want to make sure they can pass before we send them because that's a very expensive venue to send them up there and they fail in the third or fourth week once they get the legals. So we try to stop a lot of that and do it homebound here. We got our own little uh tack force out there where they run the little course that they have to run at the Academy, and we do a legal-based stuff with them and make sure they know how to shoot. That's important. You know, because if you can't shoot, you don't need to be.

SPEAKER_03 3:44

So you've got 12 to 13 deputies on a shift covering 800 on each shift square mile.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Wow. 12 hour shift. Do you really need I want 20? But now people in hell want ice for it, and you don't always get it. Yeah. I want you to have 20. But but listen, and I want to make this clear the the council and the minute the Mr. Yo, they they are very supportive of law enforcement. Yeah, oh yeah. Actually, one one year they were gonna give me six slots, and I said, no need for me to hold that money open when I can't fill the ones we have now, but now we're there. So um I'm gonna go back to the my honeymoon's over, if they say. All right, sheriff. There you go. So it it's listen, I understand the no's now because what they've done for the sheriffs, not for me, but for the men and women and for the citizens of this county, they serve that is a strong county council we have.

Reeves 4:44

The perception we were talking about this before we started of law enforcement in this country might be at an all-time low. It is, I agree with that. And so how do you go in? It's not just salary, but just the perception of I don't want to go into a profession where people hate me 24-7. How do you go into those high schools or or wherever you would go to recruit these people to say, look, this is an honorable profession because it is, and help change that perception even on a local level?

Training Before The Academy

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Well, first of all, you got to look at yourself in the mirror, okay? First of all, what we did here in this county at one time before I took office, the trust was gone. You have to build that back. You you've got to make sure, and I make sure my command staff, you got to inspect what you expect. A lot of people say, Well, sheriff, no, it's not that I don't trust you. I'm gonna make sure you did what you were supposed to do. That's my job as your sheriff. If you call me and say, hey, look, Deputy So-and-so came by here, he did a report, but I hadn't heard from you called me, I'm gonna inspect. Because listen, again, the average calls we we go through is 300 or more a day.

unknown 5:59

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Yeah. And it it's it's like, and listen, the uh the the Lucas Street, you know, we've closed down two motels. That's the busiest interchange in the country. You know, to New York, to Miami, yeah, and they're stopping in. Not only that, we get nice visitors from Darlington, we get Dillon because that's convenient for them. We've we've my narcotic cap um has done very well. We got more Narcs now, we got more investigation, we got more deputies because it's growing and the crime grows with population.

SPEAKER_03 6:36

So closing those two hotels, have you already seen a difference there? That's great. That's great.

Reeves 6:42

I think a lot of people don't realize or think about when you go New York City to Miami, Florida on I-95, and then you think of the halfway point, which is Florence, South Carolina, and then you just think of the state of South Carolina. Florence is really the only city owned 95 in South Carolina. Correct.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

They got us large interchange and to come, I mean, as far as population-wise. But but we have a task force, we have a criminal enforcement unit, they do well. And I implemented those um about three years ago. Alan Heidler, when he was chief, sat down in the areas that they were calling about shootings or people. We we work those red flag areas and we've calmed that down. But I would be a fool to say I can stop it all because I can't. I'm not selling that product. We the you know, the best way my chief says about a hurricane. No, we can't stop a hurricane with how we react to it afterwards. These murders, like I say, we tend for ten. It's not a game, but guess what? We caught the criminals that did those murders. And you know, just like my kudos goes to my investigators with this shooting we had with the Ken Law lady. Yeah. You know, they were on it, they had arrests made the next day.

SPEAKER_03 8:00

That's amazing.

Reeves 8:01

I don't know if people caught that. You say we were 10 for 10. So to go develop that a little bit. What do you mean?

Rebuilding Trust And Accountability

SPEAKER_01 8:06

We had 10 murders last year, 2025. We had 10 arrests. Out of the 10 arrests, seven were juveniles. So that's one of the biggest issues now that I see in this time from the school administration having to deal with bad kids in school to them being out on the road. And you know, I had somebody ask me, you know, about the curfew. Now I'm uh and I know some people take me as do you really think a kid cares about a curfew if they're out there shooting and murdering? No, none whatsoever. And well, we got to get to the grass. Well, guess what? The grassroots starts at home with your parents. Yes. We start charging to parents, putting them in jail.

SPEAKER_03 8:48

That's good.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:50

Because these kids are growing up with no direction, no direction, no father in the house, zero respect. And we're seeing the results now, clearly. Big results. Yes.

Reeves 9:00

We we had Senator Rickenbaugh on the podcast last year, and that's the very point he was talking about, just how depraved some of these homes are that these kids are growing up in. And you bad parents produce bad kids. And that's what we're dealing with now. They're no discipline.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

And some of the parents, some of the parents now, you know, the the saying that I love, you know, discipline is fine until it's mine.

SPEAKER_02 9:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Let my kid go and do what he wants to. Life's not like that. I promise you this every kid that's made a threat toward school or toward anything, I put their butt in jail.

SPEAKER_04 9:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Every one of them. Some of them, I've had plenty to say, well, that's my son, you know, and they thought because they had a little money, thought because who they were, no, they're going to jail.

SPEAKER_03 9:47

That's good.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

I can't just I don't have a crystal ball to say whether this kid legitimately can do this. He said it. Words mean something. When you say it, it means something. When you threaten a school, this day and age, it means something to me. You take them, haul them, take them to jail.

SPEAKER_03 10:05

So you've been in the sheriff's department for how many years now?

SPEAKER_01 10:10

I came into 85 and I left in 88, went on the state highway patrol, and I had a career there, and I uh retired in 2015 or six. I'm getting, I can't remember what I had for supper last night, but 15 or 16. And then I ran for sheriff in 20.

SPEAKER_03 10:27

But that's when Reeves was five years old. So we know that's a long time ago. Come on, guys.

Reeves 10:31

You know, I'm an old man and you were a sheriff, sheriff's department when I was five.

SPEAKER_03 10:35

I've seen behind the scenes of the PD for a lot of years. A lot of years. And now you're seeing that. What are we now, that third generation It used to be the kids had a grandparent that took control.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

That's right.

I‑95, Hotspots, And Motel Closures

SPEAKER_03 10:48

That that grandparent's no longer here. No.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

And we see that now. You're seeing it. We're seeing that. What do we do? What do we do, Sheriff? You know, I and I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm not a psychiatrist. Yeah. I'm a law dog. I put you in jail. There, there's with the court systems, and I think um the senator and those are working on this now make a stronger penalties for these juveniles. I know Merle Smith has got a committee now, and they're working on that. And I think that's gonna keep them in jail and make them realize that they have to be accountable for their actions. Yeah, that's that's that's that's a that's a lot of it now. There's no um punishment that deems in, but they don't care. You know, I know I'll be I'm a juvenile, I can do what you want.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

Yeah.

unknown 11:35

Wow.

Reeves 11:36

I remember when I was in college, I uh had a semester, I don't remember what the class was, but I went into DJJ in Columbia for a semester and worked with these kids. And I mean, some of them had committed murders, or at least were you know charged with murder. But looking in the face of some of these 14, 15, 16-year-old kids that were in DJJ, you could I had tremendous compassion for them because you saw behind the tough exterior they were just babies and human and human. And if we could just get in and help with the parents, I you know, and I think that's part of the you can't do that, like you said, you know, I would you gotta deal with that.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

But I think we will render any help we can with counseling and so forth, but um it it starts at home. Yes. And if you look at a lot of the juveniles that we're having trouble with, the history of their parents is all so bad.

Reeves 12:38

Yeah, it goes right back to the how much of a problem is the courts that you just kind of touched on a little bit. I mean, are we putting these kids away because if they do the crime, they need to do the time, not well, first of all, the legend they've got to change some of the laws.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

The judge can send us and buy what we have on the books now, and that's why Merle Merle Smith has got this committee form to make it tougher, and they're working on that now. Okay. And I do believe when they get this completed, it they make the decisions on tougher penalties. That will help some.

SPEAKER_02 13:09

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

You know, it's like everybody when when we investigate something and make a rest, we we give it to the solicitor. The solicitor decides whether to prosecute it. Everybody blames the sheriff. Listen, we're gonna go by the law. You know, we we don't make stuff up, and if it's prosecutable, if the court throws it out, that's their business. My job is to put them in jail and address what's been brought. If there's victims involved, we're gonna take care of the victims. I don't care what the other side thinks. Exactly. The victims have priority with me.

Ten Murders, Ten Arrests, And Juveniles

SPEAKER_03 13:42

I think one thing we're seeing is with these phones, we we hear about every little thing that happens now. Yeah. So everybody's thinks everything's way worse because we we know too much, probably. And you it's really kind of clarify for everybody that yeah, we had 10 murders, but it we don't we're not having a lot of killings and it's not dangerous on the streets.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

No, it's though as I've said, there were 10, or 10 for 10, and those related to seven juveniles over power, girlfriend, territorial, money. All of them were in the in the murder we had with the Ken Law lady, you know, shot in the back of the head, put back in the car, poured gas, or whatever to and say, I don't know what it was because we hadn't got that back yet. But burn her up. Her son was involved in a murder in Darlison County with revenge for that. So these are not, okay, I'm gonna ride down to Florence and I'm gonna get out and just rob somebody and kill them. Those are that's not what we have in that.

SPEAKER_03 14:51

Exactly. I think we all think, oh God, we might be next. This this could happen to me. There, there is it's not quite like that, which is encouraging to hear.

unknown 15:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:01

Florence is a the PD is not an unsafe place to be.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

The PD is a great place. My family, I've raised my family here. I've been in Florence County for my whole life, other than when I did the stint with the state patrol when I was stationed in Dillon for nine, ten years, and I moved back here. Yeah. But this is a great place. It sure is. It's got great leadership here, it's got economic growth, and the schools are great around here. I will say this uh Donald O'Malley's watch, he's very, he's aggravating as hell in that time. But he is very, very, he he knows what he's doing. Yeah. And you know, I get a lot in the year about I need this one, whatever. And we and we we get along great. We a lot a lot. But the way he runs his schools.

SPEAKER_03 15:48

Those schools are run like he is he is like a in-shape corporate business.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

He he does a great job. He sure does.

Reeves 15:56

Well, and I think what y'all were just talking about is really important to revisit because I've got a couple moving coming down to Florence tomorrow from Virginia. They want to get out of the political environment of Washington, D.C., that whole corridor. They want to come move to Florence. And he's asking me about the crime, and he's looking at all that. And we have some elevated crime stats if you just look at it on face value. But the reality is it's it's thug on thug crime.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

It's like explain the the crime stats are true that we get from SLI.

Reeves 16:29

Okay.

Parenting, Courts, And Tougher Laws

SPEAKER_01 16:30

But now if you Google Lawrence County, so what it does is it gives you a metro quad or whatever. And that includes Darlington County and includes a part of Dillon. So the true 804 square miles of Florence County, which in depth the city of Florence, Lake City, Johntsville, Pamco, Ohana, uh I left one out, Scranton. You know, there's there's a lot of them, but we don't we don't have there, there's certain areas like everywhere. It's like I told somebody if I go to the bottom and get out and say, hey, y'all, they somebody's gonna try to shoot me. Because that's an area that they hate me because of the job that we're doing. And it's a rough life there. But the reality of it all, that's the way it is. But it's not in it's not people walking down these streets shooting. You know, the Florence Police Department, they do a great job. We we got a very proactive, uh, two teams that are that work very hand in hand with all the agencies here. And just like the murder we had with the King McFadden, Boys of Road Christmas Eve, he killed one prior to that in Timmonsville. My team with the U.S. Marshals, they went to Sumner and got him. Wow. But um You've got some good guys. Oh, and and listen, people, you know, called me one day, we chased one to Bennettville, stole something, we chased him into Bennettville. And I said, as long as we got gas and tires, if they commit a crime in Florence, we're going to chase them until we get them.

SPEAKER_03 18:06

Wow.

Reeves 18:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:07

That's good. That's good for them to know.

Reeves 18:09

Yeah, I think that's really important. You know, just and we've all you you mentioned you've been here you most of my whole life, your whole life. We've been here pretty much our whole life and raised families here. I love this place. It's a beautiful place. It is.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

And it's it's it's any, I don't care, just like I said earlier. If I told you, okay, there's not gonna be any crime in Florence County, that's a lie. Everywhere, that's why we have law enforcement public safety. Everywhere has crime.

SPEAKER_03 18:38

Absolutely.

Reeves 18:39

So maybe as we kind of wrap up, you've had 45 years of law enforcement. 42. 42. Forgive me. Don't don't arrest me.

SPEAKER_03 18:48

I hope you got another 10 years left in you.

Reeves 18:50

Only God knows that. We need you a little longer. One day at a time.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

We need you longer.

Reeves 18:55

Can you quickly recall a scary story and a funny story for us? I've got a few. All right.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

I'm sure he's got a when I was on the sheriff's officer or a trooper or just whichever one in the last few years. 42nd, 1990. And it's comical and it's serious as well. Um, there was a guy on I-95 in Dillon County, and there was a vehicle disabled, and I stopped there to check on them, and this real sharp-looking guy pulls up in a Mercedes in the military. He goes, Trooper, there's a hell of a fight back here, man and woman. I said, Okay, so I jump in the car and I go and I hit the meeting, and I go southbound, and I hit the northbound. Well, there was a car there on the side of the road. And I look down, you know, the road a little ways, and there's a big muscle-down black guy walking. And I could see the blood on the shoulder and going into the cut. So this summertime now was hot. So I pull up to him and get out. I said, Hey man, what's going on? He turned around, he put his hand behind his back. He said, Take me to see Nelson Mandela. I said, Okay. I said, Where are you going to see him? He said, Virginia. I said, Okay. So I knew at that time, but anyway, I said, What have you got in your hand? Put your hands where I can see them. And he put his hand there, and it looked like a phone cord. And I said, Oh, my hand. It was a girl's eyeball. He had kidnapped a girl. Oh my god. And she tried to get down and he pulled the eyeball out. Oh. So we ended up fighting. And back then we didn't have walkie-talkies. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So we fought. We rolled around. I was down in the cut zoo and this old man pulled up. I'd never seen him again. He was in a Toyota to pick up, pulling a Carolina boat, old green wooden boat. Oh, yeah. He said, Trooper, you shot. I said, Don't come down there. I don't know where my gun is because we had different holsters in. I said, get on the radio and call for some help. We runs back to the car and it gets on my PA mic. He goes, Break, break on the break. I said, You on the wrong mic. Finally. Finally, he got on the radio and I heard him coming. But yeah, we, that guy, we had to put him between two backboards, cravat him and take him off, but he had lost his mind and he kidnapped that girl from Fail. Oh my goodness. Yeah. And she's blind. She was blinded by that because all the fluids, whatever fluids you have in your eyes, they pulled it out. She lost that. Somebody else took her to the stop, saw what was going on, took her to the hospital. But she survived. She's living, but she's blind.

Interagency Work And Major Arrests

SPEAKER_03 21:29

Oh man. So if I walked up to that, I wouldn't be tussling with him on the ground. I'd be headed the other way.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

Well, we we we fought for about 17 minutes. I had another supervisor show up and he he drove off and left me. Yeah. Wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:46

He didn't want anything to do with that deal.

unknown 21:49

Yeah. Yeah.

Reeves 21:50

That happened.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

That's a real sheriff there, Reeves. Yeah. That is that is That's what we call a badass.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

No, no, that was a bad day. When I fell on those speed bumps out there resting and hit my tailbone there for about four months, but that's a true story. June the second, nineteen nine.

SPEAKER_03 22:09

Yeah. And you'll never forget that one, will you?

SPEAKER_01 22:12

I'll tell you everything. And when my partner got killed in 88 there in Dillon, I can tell you everything I did that day, what I had for supper, and I do the same thing June the second. Wow. Because when my gun, he had hold of my gun and I grabbed it because I was trying to take him down. You know, most police officers get killed with their own guns in a tussle. And those holsters we had back there, the front brake, they were not the most what I would say secure.

SPEAKER_03 22:36

Right. You know, my dad always says the speed of the boss is the speed of the gang. That's right. And we've truly got a strong leader.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

Well, I appreciate that. But listen, I'm I'm gonna say this. The men and women at the Florence County Sheriff's Office, they're good. And there's some lazy in everything you do, but by the time I put my foot in the buttocks, we can get that going. But my command staff, they're excellent.

SPEAKER_03 23:00

Well, they see you working.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

How can they not work hard when you're working harder than all of them? You know, I've always believed this through my life, even as a head football coach. I always wanted people that were smarter than I was in those coordinator positions. That's the same thing, like my chief, my majors, my captain's over the bureau. Listen, I don't have to, I don't lose sleep over them as much as I do some of the kids now acting for.

Reeves 23:30

That's what I worry about. Is there a message you want to give to the law-abiding citizens who that you serve just to uh, you know, instruction to any kind of message, you know, just Yeah, for one thing, they're our strongest whole, the public.

Safety Reality Vs. Headlines

SPEAKER_01 23:47

If you see something, say something. Don't say, well, I'm I'm not gonna bother the law that bit. No, we're never too busy. Your information may lead us to a murder, may lead us to some activity. We've been looking for that vehicle. Anything. You know, and another thing, these a lot of these juveniles are going in these neighborhoods. You leave your car open, there's a gun. Well, I left my guns in there. Well, bring your gun in, lock your and make sure you got floodlights. Get your little ring camera, some camera. That helps us tremendously.

Reeves 24:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 24:20

That's great. Well, anything we can ever do to help you, we're here. We sure appreciate all you.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

Well, I appreciate y'all. I enjoy y'all. Y'all good people.

SPEAKER_03 24:28

Come back on anytime.

SPEAKER_01 24:30

You you when you need me, let me know.

SPEAKER_03 24:32

Thank you so much. On call away. Thank you.