Some may see the Richland County Sheriff’s Department as the worst place to be on a Saturday morning – others arrived at 6 a.m. to beat the morning traffic to get to a community yard sale there. 

The Citizens Academy Alumni Association, which sponsors the event and others, helps connect Richland County deputies with the community.

But for many, it is not just volunteer work. Association president Donna Rodes considers the program, and the deputies they work with, family. 

“Nobody else has the kind of heart this department has,” Rodes said.

Citizen program training begins as a free, 12-week, immersive course. 

“You get to go through all the different factions of the department,” Rodes said. “You get to see how they juggle everything. I mean, it’s amazing what these guys do.” 

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott works closely with the association.

“It gets the citizens in, to see who we are,” Lott said. “We’re getting to meet them, and they become ambassadors for the sheriff’s department.”

But alumni don’t just fundraise for the department. They do everything they can, Rodes said. 

“It could be setting up tents, it could be smiling and shaking hands, whatever it is,” Rodes said. “We have coined the phrase, ‘We are serving those who serve us.’”

The department uses any collected funds toward citizen outreach programs. One, a service that checks on seniors, Project H.O.P.E (Helping Our Precious Elderly), has stuck with both deputies and alumni.  

“Deputies go at least once or twice a month to go visit these folks,” Rodes said. “And then the volunteers like myself are making the phone calls every morning, checking in on them.”

Some of those citizens she will never forget, Rodes said. 

“You get this rapport with these folks, let me tell you, talking through highs and lows,” Rodes said. “One lady died a few years back, and I spent probably two weeks, every single day, at least twice a day, on the phone with her daughter.” 

Older people sign up to participate for different reasons, Rodes said. A lot of them just like to see a friendly face. 

Mary Smith, 67, has been widowed since she was 42. For her, Richland County deputies provide the comfort she needs to live alone. 

“They come around, and I won’t even know they’re checking on me,” Smith said. “I love that about it. And I also love that they’re friendly. Most people think they’re not, you know.” 

The Citizens Academy is designed to offset that long-time, general distrust of law enforcement, a barrier to police-community relationships. 

Rodes said she sees more and more deputies get into policing for there right reasons. 

“In the last 10 or 20 years, I’ve got to say, there’s a big change in people that are coming into law enforcement,” Rodes said. “They have had a lot more altruism than the head games and the power.”

And it starts at the top, Rodes said. 

“It’s all about building relationships with the community, and you do that by going to people, not waiting for those people to come to us,” Lott said. “In support of that, we go out and reach the community in every way we can.” 

For Rodes, volunteer work doesn’t end when she gets home. 

She said she has convinced her entire family to join the association, including a handful of now-adult children that she has “adopted.” 

“It’s simple, you know, it’s just everybody needs love,” Rodes said. “Everybody needs just a little bit of humor and a little bit of help.”

Lott and Rodes also have become close since she became the academy’s president two years ago. 

Lott looked out at the event and at Rodes as she danced with a neighborhood vendor.

“This is what the community police is all about,” Lott said.