Hartsville, SC – Local law enforcement request community support and participation in taking a stand against crime on June 21, 2018, at 5:30 p.m. That evening, the Hartsville Police Department’s Hartsville Safe Communities and Victim’s Advocate Initiative will complete a third repeat offender notification session in City Hall Council Chambers located at City Hall, 100 E Carolina Ave.
The notified offenders program marks a unified, proactive community effort to engage, educate, and encourage recurring offenders to change their behavior and make healthy life choices. Its aim is to reduce high levels of crime and tendencies toward continuous criminal behavior resulting in multiple arrests. Participation in the program provides repeat offenders access to resources ranging from job training to childcare services to counseling. The purpose is to empower participants to create a more positive life for themselves free of criminal activity. Attendance at the notification session is required for each participant as a condition of the offender’s probation.
“Community involvement in this program empowers offenders and community members to work together to end crime. It shows that there are people who do deserve a second chance,” says Dorothy Hines, Hartsville Safe Communities Action Team Member. “I am so happy that the City of Hartsville has taken this program on and is making people aware and involved.”
Representatives from the community and over ten law enforcement agencies will be given the opportunity to affirm the message that continued criminal behavior will not be tolerated. Participants are notified that there will be no leniency if they are caught offending again, that their prosecution will be expedited and pursued to the fullest extent of the law, and that they will be granted no bond.
Those who are interested can RSVP to the event on the @HartsvilleSafeCommunities Facebook page.
Lt. Tenyonde Richardson is part of the the Hartsville Police Department’s Community Outreach Division and Victims Advocate Services. For more information about the program and the notification session, contact Lt. Richardson at tenyonde.richardson@hartsvillesc.gov or 843.383.3011.