� Uniform Patrol Division

Master Sgt. Troy Brewington supervises the uniformed patrol division of the Union County Sheriff’s Office. (Anna Brown/Times)

Brewington brings knowledge, experience to job
Union DailyTimes -June 16, 2009
Sheriff David Taylor says Master Sgt. Troy Brewington’s experience as a law officer — including the time Brewington spent as a campus police officer — are valuable assets to Union County.

“Troy is a very community-minded person,” said Taylor, who hired Brewington after he took office in January. “He doesn’t mind getting out and working. All I have to do is call him and he’ll be there. He’s ready to do whatever it takes to make our county safer.”

Taylor said after the Virginia Tech tragedy, many campuses — including USC-Upstate where Brewington worked — began extra training for officers in how to handle such an event.

“Troy has that experience he brings to our department and we will be going through that type of training this summer when school is out,” Taylor said.

The sheriff’s office will be working with Randy Crocker, safety coordinator for Union County Schools, to get a diagram and layout of each school in the county that can be reduced in size to the point deputy can carry in his or her patrol car.

“If ever there should be a situation, we’d have a blueprint or layout of the schools to know where a person may be or where we need to be,” Taylor said.

Taylor said knowledge and experience are priceless assets for a law officer and that is why he hired three seasoned veterans — Brewington, Chief Deputy Perry Haney and Capt. James McNeil — when he became sheriff.

“We wanted to bring that knowledge back to Union and put it to work for us,” he said. “Troy, Perry and James have over 70 years of experience.”

Brewington is one of six children of Lee Brewington and the late Mattie Brewington of West Springs. After graduating from Jonesville High School in 1981, he went to work for Torrington (now Timken). He met his wife, the former Cynthia Smith, while she was working on her job at Bantam Chef. Mrs. Brewington now is a clerical assistant with Mayo Global. The Brewingtons have one daughter, Tayler, 18.

After losing his job at Torrington to layoffs, Brewington worked as a mechanic and in textiles. Pursuing a career in law enforcement had long been a dream.

“When I was a kid and I’d see a deputy or a police officer, I thought they were the biggest and the best out there,” he said. “Ike Lawson (former deputy) was a family friend and neighbor. I’d go and talk with him and he was instrumental in helping me get on with the county reserves.”

Later, Lawson was working as a Jonesville police officer and told Brewington there was a job opening. Brewington was hired in 1985 and worked in Jonesville until 1987 when then-sheriff William Jolly offered him a job as a deputy.

Brewington rose to the rank of sergeant and remained with the sheriff’s office until 2006 when he joined the USC-Upstate campus police force. Campus police are much like police in a small town handling traffic enforcement, underaged drinking and drugs, arguments and violations of the noise ordinance. Around 400 students live on campus. Brewington said this job was a learning experience.

“You have so many hands in the decision making,” he said. “And then too, you are dealing with college kids and on one side you want to give them a break and on the other your want to show them right from wrong. It was a whole different style of law enforcement. It was a good experience and I learned a lot.”

All the while he was working in Spartanburg, Brewington hoped he could one day get back into law enforcement in Union County. He ran for sheriff in 2008. In the Democratic Primary he faced incumbent sheriff Howard Wells and Taylor, a former deputy.

“I came out on the bottom of things but I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything,” Brewington said.

When Taylor was elected, he offered Brewington a job as master sergeant, supervising the uniformed patrol officers.

“I enjoy that because I still get to work with the people out on the road,” he said. “I get to help out with narcotics investigations some. I take call to take some of the pressure off the investigators- just whatever I can do to help make the department a better place. And we really have a good group of guys and girls here — things are going very well.”

While at USC-Upstate, Brewington underwent a lot of both legal and administrative training. He is continuing his training in administration and soon will go to armor school to learn how to maintain and repair the weapons carried by officers.

Future plans for the sheriff’s office included upgrading training for deputies.

“The training is there; all you have to do is send people to it,” Brewington said. “A better trained deputy can serve the people better.”