PROSPERITY — With the hiring of a new police officer, Prosperity took another step closer to achieving Chief David Beddingfield’s vision of 24/7 policing in Prosperity.
Kenneth Hite, 55, is a veteran law enforcement practitioner who retired from the City of Columbia police force in 2010.
“The hiring of Officer Hite essentially means we’ll be able to expand our coverage.” Beddingfield said. “It doesn’t mean we’ll be able to operate in a 24/7 capacity but we should be able to extend coverage to some later evening hours and possible weekend hours.”
Hite was born in Charleston where his father was stationed as a member of the Navy. When he was a year old, Hite’s family relocated back to the Midlands where his parents were originally from.
Although Hite has no close relatives in the police force, he did have a distant uncle, whose name he cannot recall, who worked for the City of Columbia many years ago and was actually killed in the line of duty.
“He got hit by a car on Main Street sometime in the 1930’s,” Hite said.
While out on patrol the uncle checked-in at a police call box before being fatally struck by a vehicle as he crossed the street.
“I think he was in his 40’s or 50’s back then. He was one of the very few Columbia police officers who have been killed in the line of duty,” Hite said.
After graduating from Chapin High School, Hite completed a two year criminal justice degree at the University of South Carolina before enlisting for four years of active-duty service in the Navy.
During that time Hite was stationed at Pearl Harbor and was then assigned to the USS Joseph Strauss which sailed to numerous places including Alaska, Samoa, Singapore and Australia.
“Looking back on it I had a great time. When I was there I was young and I didn’t realize that I was having a good time, ya know?” Hite said. “You don’t appreciate it until after it’s over with. All I wanted to do was get back home.”
Hite left the Navy as an E4 — Petty Officer 3rd Class — and in 1987 joined the Columbia police department where he would spend the next 23 years.
“I worked the street as a sergeant. We would have eight to 12 police officers responsible for a sector of the city and I would be responsible for what they did in controlling where they went and approving their reports,” he said.
Also having spent time in investigation and narcotics, Hite said his favorite part was working the street.
“I just like to be in uniform, I like to be a street cop, just going out and snagging calls,” he said.
Not wishing to severe ties with the military, Hite spent a total of 32 years between the Navy reserves and the Army National Guard concurrently with his law enforcement career.
In 2007-2008 he was sent to Afghanistan to train new recruits in the Afghan army at the Kabul Military Training Center.
“Five of us would go in and pick up a company of Afghan soldiers right off the street and issue them uniforms and train them for six or eight weeks,” he said.
When Hite retired from the police department in 2010, he was bumped up to full-time active duty in the National Guard.
“Got out and jumped on some orders for four years and three months working at the Joint Operations Center on Fish Hatchery Road in Columbia,” he said.
Hite explained the JOC is essentially a dispatch for the S.C. National Guard which is responsible for maintaining continuity between those in the field and their commanders.
“And then if there was a hurricane or snow we would become an emergency operations center to work to get the assets they needed, be it manpower or equipment,” he said.
Hite then spent a year as an assistant account manager at Colonial Life Insurance.
“We had about 20 security guards that operated 24/7,” said Hite, who really wanted to return to law enforcement.
“Probably the overall thing is the brotherhood of the police force. Having friends and going out and backing your friends up and them backing you up is a big part of law enforcement and why a lot of people, when they get out of the field, will retire and come back to the police department,” he said.
After applying to several departments, Hite discovered that David Beddingfield, formerly a Columbia policeman, had become Prosperity’s chief of police.
Although their time in Columbia overlapped, the two did not actually know one another, not surprising as Columbia’s department employs roughly 350 policemen.
Being a resident of Little Mountain, Hite was already familiar with the Prosperity area. Hite was able to get re-certified without having to physically return to the academy.
“You have to do online courses and spin-you-up on your legal updates, criminal domestic violence laws,” Hite said.
Hite began work at the Prosperity police department on Jan. 14 and said he likes the small town feel.
“I love Columbia but I’ve always really wanted to work for a small police department,” Hite said. “Prosperity is tiny but bad things can happen here as well as it can happen in the City of Columbia. The thing I’ll probably have to get used to is everybody knows everybody. You see the same people every day,”
Although there are many differences some aspects of the job are exactly the same.
“You are still a police officer and you can’t go on calls without wearing your vest or carrying your weapon while you’re on duty because humans are humans and they can do great things and not-so-great things.”
Hite said he is happy to be working in Prosperity, a sentiment reflected by Beddingfield.
“The Town of Prosperity’s lucky to have an officer with his experience working for this police department,” Beddingfield said. “It’s my hope that he’ll be a great fit and the experience that Officer Hite brings in is something that someone like a newer officer or even some of our reserves can benefit from.”
An additional officer, currently undergoing academy training, is set to join Prosperity’s force in March.