LEXINGTON, S.C. – Sergeant Willie Harris grew up watching police officers on television and knew he wanted to be a deputy one day.
Harris, a native of Florence, South Carolina, is fulfilling that dream in the Patrol Division at the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department.
When considering different agencies at the start of his career, he heard how the Lexington County community supports law enforcement, which was enough to convince him to apply.
“People pay for my meals all the time,” Harris said. “Why not want to come work for an agency where you have the community behind you?”
Harris is going on five years at the Sheriff’s Department. He said his co-workers have made it easy to stay.
“If you ever get into any type of issues, ever have any questions…you know that here at this department, you can lean on your teammates to assist you getting through those difficult decisions or things of that nature,” Harris said. “These guys are different. I love working with them.”
In those almost five years, Harris went from patrol deputy to field training officer, then master deputy to sergeant. He said he loves training because it gives him the ability to learn new things and ensure the people he’s training are taught correctly.
While working his way up, Harris has learned many things about himself, but nothing more important than how resilient he is.
“Some of these calls are very traumatizing at times,” Harris said. “You see a lot of different things on TV, killings and shootings and things of that nature. Once you become a cop, you’re going to see that on a day-to-day basis. Being able to emotionally handle those stresses is something I’ve definitely handled really well.”
Harris also said he is grateful for the support the Sheriff’s Department offered in the moving stages of his career, while learning to overcome these emotional challenges.
“I never in a million years would’ve imagined getting promoted as quickly as I have,” Harris said. “But at the end of the day, when you’re out here doing your work to the best of your abilities, people observe that. The right people have observed that.”