Police Chief Carl Ritchie, who officially retires on May 7, received a First Responder Award and other accolades by the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce at their April 15 luncheon. One of his “gifts” was to become part of the Mount Pleasantopoly game and major fundraiser the Chamber is putting together for its fall Expo. Although rather than “go to jail” Ritchie’s card tells players to “go to the beach.”
The event was attended by Town Council members, Mayor Will Haynie, police officers and chamber members who spoke both lightheartedly and sincerely about their relationships with Ritchie. All praisd his leadership and character.
Eddie Phipps, president of the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce, has known Ritchie for decades. He spoke of Ritchie’s extensive background, noting he began his career in North Charleston in 1988.
“In 1989, Chief Ritchie accepted a position as a police officer with the Mount Pleasant Police Department, rising through the ranks to his current assignment as police chief. His previous assignments including major of the operations bureau, uniform patrol, traffic, narcotics, criminal investigation and administrative service and SWAT.” Phipps said.
Ritchie also served in the U.S. Air Force as a security force member and as a special agent with the United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations in the Reserves. Phipps also said Richie “has been responsible for the operational planning of many high profile events that have received national attention and he successfully led the Mount Pleasant police department to its ninth national reaccreditation, achieving the gold standard with excellence and is committed to community policing.”
Mayor Will Haynie added to his list of accomplishments by reminding the crowd that Ritchie is also a Ph.D. candidate. “Those are things that can be listed on a resume. But the thing you know if you’ve known Carl Ritchie is the reason he is a great police chief is he is a great person.”
Haynie hesitated and was choked up by his emotions for a moment when he added that Ritchie was “one of the finest human beings you will ever know. And I have witnessed, outside of the public eye, the true character of Carl Ritchie. And saying goodbye to him in uniform is going to be hard enough.” He turned to Ritchie and said to him “you have to be around for us.” Haynie, turning back to the crowd added, “He is a moral driving force for this town.” He said that one of the reasons Mount Pleasant is a great town is because of Ritchie.
Council member Howard Chapman said he enjoyed the privilege of working with a number of police chiefs prior to Ritchie. “But I can tell you, that Chief Richie is the best. He is definitely the best. We are so lucky.”
At one point Phipps told an intriguing story about when he worked with Ritchie as a police officer. “I remember before I went to law school — which kind of caused me to go to law school — Carl and I were involved in an incident and it was his fault,” Phipps said, eliciting a big laugh from the audience. “But I got wrote up for it. And there was a videotape that was erased by me by accident. I remember walking in one day, and Carl saying to me, ‘Man, you know what they’re saying?’ I’m like, what’s that? He’s like, ‘they’re saying that you erased this to protect me because we were friendly.’”
Phipps continues the story, “Then the very next day, it was like deja vu. He’s walking up, ‘you know what they’re saying now?’ I’m like, what’s that? ‘Now they’re saying that you were making copies of the video to blackmail me.’ And I thought to myself, this is bizarre. But that’s the kind of pressure and the environment that law enforcement is… you don’t really understand the rumor mills, the jockeying for position, the politics, and of course, now you have the social difficulties that are involved. I got out, I said this enough for me, and I’m going to law school or doing something else.”
Of course the audience wanted to know more about this bit of shared information so when Ritchie spoke he eased everyone’s curiosity.
Ritchie explained that Phipps had made a traffic stop and “This guy that he stopped was just being rude, obnoxious, and nasty. And the guy told us something that we’re always hearing, ‘I pay your salary.’ I didn’t miss a beat. I pulled the change out of my pocket and gave him a refund. That’s what caused all that. … Yes, I got called into the chief’s office.”
His chief asked about what happened and Ritchie told the story. When asked if he would do it again he said, “yes, sir.” After the audience stopped laughing Ritchie explained. “He was nasty to my officer. I’ve always had their backs where they’re doing right. And that’s what happened on that occasion.”
In a more serious vein Ritchie said, “We have an amazing police department. Absolutely amazing, and a great succession plan. You know, I’m staying here my family, my wife and I, we own a home here. Our kids grew up here. We’re staying right here, in Mount Pleasant. This is where we want to be. … I’m so proud of the men and women who are going to be stepping up and continuing to lead this agency and continue to keep this town safe. I’ve been so fortunate. … I think I’ve worked for five or six different mayors. My career spanned five decades from the 80s until now. I’ve been very fortunate as a police officer and as a police chief to have the support of the Council. I thank y’all. The town administrator took a chance on me, promoted me. He didn’t know what he was getting. But hopefully I’ve given you everything that you expect me as a chief and a police officer, so thank you all for that.”
Source: Google News
#chamber of commerce #chambers #chamber news #business #the Mount Pleasant Chamber
About Skyhigh.Vip
Skyhigh.Vip is a global institutional investor with vast interest in Arts / Construction / Education / Business Services / E-Sports and various other growth industries.
Several of its popular portfolio includes GO Chambers which is the world’s largest business chamber listing providers with over 30,000 active chambers as its members.
Flexgigzz is the Asia leading marketplace for freelancer service and together with SOHO Learning Hub which is an online platform for short courses and both of them aims to be the number one provider in Asia. For growth industries such as E-Sport Authority which is dedicated to providing independent media coverage to all E-Sport News related from around the world and for the art world, there is Atelier Auction which is an investable art auctioneer and being in the art scene for decades.
