Woodruff Police Department plans expansion as the city grows

WOODRUFF, S.C. (WSPA) – A small Upstate police department has plans to triple in size over the next few years due to population growth.

The City of Woodruff has been Arty Meadows’ home for 67 years. Meadows told 7NEWS over the years he watched the city go through different phases.

“The loss of the textile industry was detrimental, a great loss but the closeness of the community is still similar but I don’t feel like it is quite as good as it used to be. We still help each other and try to look out for each other,” Meadows said.

Now the city is undergoing another change as new businesses, housing developments, and a BMW plant move in.

“We expect to see a pretty significant increase in our residential population but you also have to look at our commuter population coming through [with] businesses such as BMW that are coming into the city,” explained Gregory Ryan, chief of police for the Woodruff Police Department. “

Ryan added that this is prompting the department to start planning for the future.

“Right now, we are trying to plan ahead on what our needs are going to be as an agency and as a city to provide the level of service that this community deserves,” Ryan said. “Between population and call volume increasing through the additional businesses and members into our community, we are looking at going from 13 (officers) to roughly around the mid 40’s over the next five or so years.”

And as the police force grows so would the need for more space. The current police station is located at Woodruff City Hall.

“We have some conceptual ideas with anything you are looking to into the future. You have to start putting the ideas in place now,” said Ryan. “We occupy roughly around 3,000 square feet of this current facility and for 13 officers its suitable but if you are looking at tripling that number, we would definitely exceed the capacity of this building so the need for a new building would be there.”

Meadows agreed that a growing city will need more protection but he hopes the growth will bring another thing to town.

“We need another grocery store. That would help,” Meadows suggested. “We need maybe two more grocery stores.”

Ryan said the department recently hired a detective position for the first time. This year, the department will also hire a traffic officer to focus on crashes and speed management.

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