Foster to be longest serving, current sheriff

NEWBERRY COUNTY — As of the first Tuesday in January 2021, Sheriff Lee Foster will be the longest serving, current sheriff in South Carolina, according to the S.C. Sheriffs’ Association.

By the end of 2020, Foster said he will have been sheriff for 32 years, the previous record was held by David Stone, former sheriff of Pickens County, he served for 44 years.

“It is kind of a dubious honor, when I first was elected in 1988 — I took office in 1989 — I was one of the youngest sheriffs. Now, I’m one of the oldest sheriffs, I’ve literally grown up in this position,” Foster said. “I was humbled when I won the race in 1988, and I always remember who put me in office, and 32 years later I’m still humbled to serve in this capacity.”

When Foster chose to run over 30 years ago he said it was because Sheriff Henderson was retiring and the office was open. He said the other reason was that he lived in Newberry County all his life, most of his family was born and raised here going back generations.

“I had a keen interest in law enforcement because when I was in elementary school I would go to the Town Hall in Prosperity and I would wait there until my mother got out of the teaching job at Mid-Carolina High School, so she could pick me up and we would go home,” he said. “I got to hang around the police and the deputies that came in there, and the firefighters, I just thought that was the greatest thing and that is what I wanted to do,” Foster said.

Foster’s career in law enforcement began when he joined the Explorer Cadet Program they had in the Town of Prosperity, he said he participated in that program when he was in school. Then, when he graduated from Mid-Carolina High School, he went to the University of South Carolina where he majored in criminal justice.

“That just piqued my interest even more,” he said.

During his senior year at UofSC (1978-79), Foster got his first law enforcement job as the police chief in Little Mountain.

“I was the last police chief in Little Mountain, either I did such a great job they couldn’t find a replacement or they didn’t want another one,” Foster joked.

Foster began working with the county in August 1979, he said if you count his time in the Explorer Program, he has been in law enforcement for 45 years.

When Foster first started getting into the profession he said his desire was to either be a SLED (S.C. Law Enforcement Division) agent or an FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) agent.

“Then, when I began working with the Sheriff’s Office, I pretty much resigned myself that I wanted to stay at home. I was a homebody anyway, and I pretty much wanted to stay at home. That was my chosen point, once I got involved in the Sheriff’s Office,” he said.

During his years in law enforcement, there have been changes in both crime patterns and technology used. He said when he first started drug cases were minimal, as were crimes of violence.

Then, right about the time I took over as sheriff in 1988-89, that is when crack cocaine was introduced in America, which is still a dangerous drug and it led to violence like this country has never seen,” he said.

Foster said technology has also changed, when he started they did not have a fax machine — a device he said is basically obsolete now.

“We sure didn’t have cellular telephones. I have seen a major technological shift in law enforcement keeping up with techniques, we had fingerprinting, but we didn’t have DNA, the ability to test fibers, compare tire tracks — we just didn’t have those abilities when I first started,” he said. Now, we do DNA, trace evidence which is microscopic evidence at crime scenes.”

Foster added that this is paradigm shift in how they did things. He said as crime increases they need to figure out ways to equally or better protect the residents of Newberry County, compared to the rest of the state and country.

“We started looking at the use of grants, I think one of the neatest things I have done was that I was on a national committee for a number of years that represented and specialized in rural law enforcement. That is a passion of mine, the people of Newberry County deserve to have equal or better law enforcement than people in non-rural areas,” he said.

Today, Foster said the trend they are seeing is more crimes of violence, but they are seeing reductions in other types of crimes.

“Crimes of violence are the crimes that take a human toll — irreplaceable and priceless,” he said.