Larry Payne’s life’s work is reflected in his three decades of service to Richland County
In January 2018, then-Lieutenant Larry Payne was one of three Richland County Sheriff’s Department (RCSD) deputies featured in a national POLICE1 article which examined the department’s unique and first-of-its-kind pre-PTSD conditioning programs: A period of pre-post-traumatic stress disorder counseling and training which all of RCSD’s newly hired deputies would receive during entry level training before they ever hit the street. They still do: Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott conceived of, developed and instituted the program in 2016. Lt. (today Captain) Payne was one of the initial primary instructors.
And why not? No single deputy or law enforcement leader had experienced more traumatic stress than Payne. No one understood the mental, physical, and emotional dynamics associated with PTSD better than he. According to Payne in the 2018 article: “In the past, there was this misperception that you would be perceived as weak if you admitted that you were somehow struggling a bit emotionally. That wrong thinking in-and-of itself was and is the biggest problem.”…