Cayce, SC 04/30/2025 (Paul Kirby) – A spokesperson for the City of Cayce says that the city’s Police Department should begin posting their monthly crime and activities statistics to a new website for free soon after a long-time citizen of the City complained that she waited for a number of months and was charged over $60.00 by the City to gather a one page response to her Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for these Cayce Police Department statistics. According to Cayce resident Karen Dawkins, she had asked for many months for any month, through several channels, for these statistics since sometime in 2024. She finally filed an official FOI request through the Cayce Police Department’s website in 2025.
“Councilman Hunter Sox has always been helpful to me so I asked him if he could get those for me several times. Each time I requested the numbers out of curiosity, Councilman Sox said he could get the statistics for me for free. The next time we would talk, it seemed like someone at the Police Department or Cayce City Hall wasn’t giving much attention to his request for them either,” Dawkins said. “It was almost like it was a big secret. When they finally notified me that the records were ready to pick up at the City Hall, I was told that the 1-page report was going to cost me more than $60! According to the City, it took an employee 3 hours to gather the numbers, and that employee made $21an hour. As shocked as I was, I went and paid $63 for the page and posted it on my Facebook page. I plan to do so every month until they (the Cayce PD) do it themselves. We as citizens deserve to know these things,” she concluded.
According to Cayce City Spokesperson Ashley Hunter, she understands that statistics will begin being made available for free in June of 2025 after their new Police Chief Bruce Wade is sworn in. “As our Cayce Police Department continues to thrive under the new leadership of Chief Bruce Wade, we look to new initiatives that increase transparency and professional standards. Some of these include an updated website and publicizing our monthly crime statistics. We are proud of our officers and our Department; and we look forward to Chief Wade’s leadership,” Hunter concluded. She said that Wade would officially be sworn in on June 1, 2025…