Ahead of the primaries on June 11, the four candidates running to be the Lexington County sheriff are reminding voters of their plans for the sheriff’s department if they win.

The four candidates running are incumbent Jay Koon and challengers Alan Driggers, Billy Warren and Garry Rozier.

All four of the candidates running are Republicans so whoever wins the June 11 primary will almost certainly be the new sheriff.

Koon was elected to his current position in 2015 after previously serving for 20 years in several different roles with the Town of Lexington Police Department including detective, watch commander and assistant chief.

A lifelong Lexington County resident, Koon told the Chronicle that despite the community having gone through hard times in recent years not only because of COVID-19, but also because of the 2018 train wreck, officer-involved shootings and more, the Lexington community is still growing and prospering. He also said the support he feels for law enforcement throughout the community is palpable and unique to Lexington County.

“We’ve been battle-tested,” he said. “We're seeing pockets of homelessness, we're seeing an uptick on some overdoses and we're seeing mental health issues and we've made great strides in all of those.”

As Lexington County sheriff, Koon said that he has a close working relationship with law enforcement agencies throughout the community.

“Every little community is different,” he said.

Recruitment and retention of quality law enforcement officials is one of Koon’s priorities, but he also noted that working smarter to help officers respond to every area quickly is also important. Using modern technology to ensure that the nearest and most available officer or deputy is the one to respond to emergencies is a strategy Koon is undertaking and hopes to continue.

“Just trying to find any and all ways to better tackle the workload to make it more efficient,” he said. “I'm a big customer service guy.”

Alan Driggers served as a Lexington County Sheriff’s Department law enforcement officer for 24 years before retiring in 2020. Driggers also worked in the human resources department of the sheriff’s office and as a law enforcement instructor for the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy.

He is currently a criminal justice professor at Midlands Technical College.

One of the biggest issues that Driggers is campaigning on is staffing.

He said that “the Lexington County Sheriff's Department is experiencing a serious staffing crisis. Turnover, position vacancies and stress among agency staff are all high.”

His plan to combat the staffing shortages include raising the starting pay for deputy sheriffs, making sure that staffing is increased so that it matches the growth rate of Lexington County and bettering the benefits package that all county first responders receive.

“At the end of the day, I want to take better care of the men and women of the sheriff’s department so that they can take better care of the people of Lexington County,” Driggers said.

Billy Warren has served in multiple law enforcement agencies before retiring in 2017. He served as a deputy in the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department for seven years before working for the South Carolina Highway Patrol for 32 years.

Warren currently owns and operates 10 Zero Driving Academy.

His campaign platform focuses on fixing four issues. Warren wants “to build a stronger, more responsive Sheriff’s Department, have proactive law enforcement to decrease crime, communicate and coordinate with other community and intra-agency groups and communicate with citizens to build trust in the sheriff’s department.”

Warren has been endorsed by the Lexington County Republican Party.

The fourth candidate, Garry Rozier, has served in various law enforcement roles for nearly 40 years.

Rozier will not appear on the ballot as a Republican due to the state party removing him from the ballot for being unable to prove his residency of at least one year in Lexington County.

Rozier said Koon has “dirty politics” but has said he will not withdraw.

“I'm not out. I will fight until the end. He thinks he has eliminated me, he is wrong,” he said in a Facebook post.

He is currently campaigning as a write-in candidate for the primary and hopes to run as an independent candidate for the November election.

The primary is on June 11 and you can find your polling place at scvotes.gov.