Richland County Sheriff’s Dept. unveils 14 of 16 new patrol cars

By W. Thomas Smith Jr.

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Richland County Sheriff’s Dept. (RCSD) unveiled its new fleet of 2017 Chevrolet Camaro SS patrol cars during a gathering of reporters, community leaders, deputies and other officers at Polo Road Recreation Park in Northeast Columbia, Mon. afternoon.

The vehicles – 14 of 16 new Camaros in the RCSD inventory (not counting hundreds of other RCSD vehicles) – will be driven by deputies serving on the RCSD’s Community Action Team (CAT), an RCSD outreach unit and community bridging program between the department and the various communities it serves.

“We want CAT Team deputies driving go-fast cars that look good,” says Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott. “We want people to easily and readily recognize CAT Team deputies whenever they drive through a community. We want the good guys to recognize them, and we want the bad guys to know who they are as well.”

Lott says “sharp, squared-away high visibility” has long been a hallmark of CAT Team deputies. “We expect our deputies to look good, and the cars they drive to look just as good,” he says.

For the past 20 years, CAT Team deputies have driven Chevy Camaros, Dodge Magnums, and Dodge Challengers. Today they’ve come full circle, again, driving Camaro SS’s upfitted with the full RCSD package and a 6.2 Liter V-8 engine with 455 horses and the ability to accelerate from zero to 60 miles-per-hour in four seconds flat, according to Chevrolet.

The Camaros pictured here were photographed at approximately 2:30 p.m. at Polo Road Recreation Park by a camera mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle, remotely piloted by CAT Team Corporal Marcus Kim.

– For more information, visit the Richland County Sheriff’s Dept. at rcsd.net.