“There’s no overtime budgeted for my officers,” says Blankenship. “So, there’s a lot of my officers, including myself, that we just work because we love what we do, and we want to help the community.”
Their day-to-day is typically busy.
“Working wrecks, responding to calls, doing information reports for people, the court proceedings that we have to deal with, we’ve made arrests for trafficking drugs just this past week from local individuals here,” says Eric Blankenship, Abbeville Chief of Police.“I know it’s frustrating for the people here in the community because things don’t happen quite as quick as they would like, but it’s even more frustrating on us,” explains Blankenship.
They protect around 2,800 people, but the department doesn’t have the same resources or manpower as bigger cities. “We don’t have a major crime lab here to process everything,” explains Blankenship. “All our forensic stuff we depend on it going to Montgomery, and then when it goes to Montgomery, it’s in line with everybody else throughout the state.”
If anyone has information regarding the two recent shooting incidents in Abbeville, there were no injuries at either, contact the Henry County Sheriff’s office, Abbeville Police Department, or Crimestoppers.