BENNETTSVILLE—In response to concerns about recruiting and retaining qualified officers for the Bennettsville Police Department, the city commissioned an onsite assessment from Legal and Liability Risk Management Institute, a network of risk management professionals dedicated to enhancing professionalism, effectiveness, and risk management of public safety/criminal justice through police training, policies, procedures, and legal support.

Wednesday, the city released a highly redacted copy of the report detailing issues within the department.

“At the time of this report, the department was down five officers. Chronic understaffing at a police department can bring a heavy toll on officers when they are overworked and become burned out,” the report reads. The report was conducted in November 2023.

The low staffing at BPD caused the elimination of the department’s Special Operation Response Team, which had nine members who responded to high-risk situations, according to the report. “Understaffing at BPD has severely impacted training opportunities for officers. Chief (Kevin) Miller stated he cannot send officers to training because he needs officers to fill shifts. We heard complaints from officers that quality training opportunities no longer exist at the BPD.”

Miller stated in the report that the department was down six officers because a proposed $9,309.38 bonus to members of the department was rescinded by the city council. The report says Miller “stated emphatically, that the departure of the six officers was solely financial.”

Former officers interviewed told a different story. The LLRMI interviewed five of the officers who resigned in 2023. The names of the interviewed officers were redacted in the report released publically.

On November 12, a former BPD officer who is now a sworn officer in McColl said her reason for resigning had nothing to do with the bonuses.

“She stated the main reason she resigned was that she no longer wanted to work for Chief Miller. She stated Chief Miller made promises to her and never followed through. She was promised an assignment to the canine unit that never happened and was promised a promotion to corporal that also did not happen… When asked about the chief’s leadership, she stated “he’s pretty negative, he would never step up and help out. He focused on the negative and talked down to everyone,” ” according to the report.

The former officer told LLRMI that she filed a sexual harassment complaint against a fellow officer, the department conducted an internal investigation, and as a part of the investigation, Miller called her to meet at his home, where he brought her into his garage to discuss the complaint, the report states. The officer said the chief asked her “what do you want me to do?” She told him, “that’s up to you.”

She stated, according to the report, that later in the investigation Miller went to her home and delivered her a reprimand. The former officer said she was uncomfortable going to Miller’s home and with him coming to her home.

Miller said in the report that following the sexual harassment complaint, an instructor was brought into the department and all employees had training on sensitivity and harassment. However, the officer who filed the complaint was placed in the same class with the officer she’d filed the complaint against, which the report calls questionable.

Another former BDP officer who also works for MPD stated in the report that he left the department “because of Kevin Miller, he looked me right in the eye and lied to me.”

The third former BDP officer interviewed for the report said, “The retention bonus issue had “zero impact on my decision to leave the Bennettsville Police Department. I left because of the bad culture created by Chief Miller. Chief Miller created a cesspool of a work environment. It was a toxic work environment.”

The officer said he took a $12,000 pay cut when he left BPD, according to the report. The former also said, “Chief Miller has applied to several police departments. “He doesn’t want to work there and everyone knows it,” the report stated.

The fourth officer interviewed for the report said he was fired from BPD because of a job-related injury. He described Miller as “narcissistic, everything is about the chief.” According to the report, he told LLRMI that bad leadership and not retention bonuses were the reason the officers resigned.

The fifth former officer interviewed said his reason for leaving was solely because of Miller, the report stated. In fact, the former officer said he took an $ 80-a-week pay cut to join the McColl Police Department. He described Miller as, “vindictive, egotistical, and a narcissist.”

Several current employees interviewed for the report described the erosion of community outreach since Miller became chief. One employee said, “There was community outreach under Chief Larry McNeil.”

An unnamed city council member said in the report that “a young man in my district asked me for information and assistance regarding the BPD and employment. I steered him to the sheriff’s office instead. I could not find it in me to recommend the Bennettsville Police Department, that is sad.”

The other city council members said the chief is a fair person and does a good job as the BPD chief.

Another unnamed council member said the chief “is not a good leader, that’s the biggest problem.”

A former officer who retired from the department in December expressed “dissatisfaction with the way Chief Miller created department policy” and how lower-ranking officers knew of changes before he was made aware of changes. The then employee had requested a job transfer to city hall, citing a hostile work environment, according to the report.

He stated, according to the report, “People are leaving for one reason only, the chief. Chief Miller has played a big part in the demise of this department.”

To view the entire report, click here.