GREENVILLE, S.C. — Greenville County Sheriff Hobart Lewis is pressing the county to find more money for deputy salaries now, saying his agency keeps losing trained officers to departments that pay more.
Lewis said the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office has roughly 46 open positions, plus 23 recent hires who will need about six months before they can work on their own. To keep patrol shifts covered, he moved about 40 people out of specialty work, including the traffic division, the homeless response unit and a community action team, and put them back on uniform patrol.
The sheriff argued that other agencies offer $10,000 to $15,000 more a year, turning his office into a training ground for them. A new deputy with no experience starts at $59,273, which works out to about $28.50 an hour before overtime. That entry figure sits $7,412 under the median of 2,288 agencies in a national pay comparison. Patrol schedules run 85.75 hours every two weeks, so part of each check comes from overtime.
In June, Greenville County Council passed a budget with a 4% raise for all county workers instead of an earlier plan that would have given the sheriff’s office 5.5%. Lewis wants council to amend the budget before the next cycle begins in summer 2027. Federal staffing figures for 2025 list the agency with 576 sworn officers and 121 civilian staff.
Section: More Greenville SC crime news
Filed under: Greenville SC Public Safety News
