In law enforcement, rare is the day of placid waters. The churn of routine is so often transformed by the turbulent seas of major events, whether they be crime-, storm- or even pandemic-related.
As such, a strong leader is needed at the helm.
The captain of Beaufort County’s ship is Sheriff P.J. Tanner, and for more than 20 years, he’s kept the vessel of public safety moving steadily forward, no matter how challenging the conditions.
Tanner, the son of Harry and Jean, grew up in Bluffton and found his calling early on.
His uncle, Tommy Simmons, was a game warden at what is now the Department of Natural Resources. Tanner thought this was the coolest career one could possibly have.
“I mean, they would give me a four-wheel-drive truck, a boat, AND pay me? Why would I want to become anything else?,” Tanner jokes.
He decided to follow in his uncle’s footsteps and graduated from the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy in 1981. But, as he approached his 21st birthday, the age at which he would become eligible to apply, there was a hiring freeze.
His uncle encouraged him to wait it out and apply for a position at the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office in the meantime.
Tanner interviewed for the job just three days after his 21st birthday. Four hours later, he was starting his very first patrol shift.
By March 1981, he was patrolling by land and by sea. Every Wednesday, he was assigned to Daufuskie Island. He patrolled in the mornings, ate lunch at the home of Geraldine Wheelihan, who was affectionately known as the mayor of the island, and patrolled again in the afternoons.
“Everyone who lived there was salt of the earth,” Tanner smiles at the memory. “It was a gorgeous place to be every week.”
One day in 1984, Tanner was at Sheriff’s Office headquarters in Beaufort when his fate became sealed.
“You know boy, you have to have an education if you want to get anywhere else in this department,” Sheriff Morgan McCutcheon told him.
Tanner looked at McCutcheon and without hesitation said, “Sheriff, one day I’m going to have your job.”
Ten years later, when Tanner first ran for sheriff, then retired McCutcheon, who is now deceased, reminded him of their conversation a decade earlier. He said he knew right then that Tanner would indeed become sheriff someday.
By the mid-1990s, Tanner was a well-rounded deputy. To become a good sheriff, though, he knew he had to learn the administrative side of the agency. McCutcheon took him under his wing.
Though Tanner won the hard-fought 1994 primary run-off, he lost to Carl McLeod in November.
Not one to give up, Tanner spent the next four years preparing for the next race.
He joined the South Carolina Department of Public Safety and was recruited to the South Carolina Bureau of Protective Services. During his time with the state, he made long-lasting connections and gained invaluable law enforcement experience in a number of roles.
“I feel like I needed to lose in 1994 to be more successful in the future,” Tanner says.
And that he was.
In 1998, Tanner won the General Election for Beaufort County Sheriff by 114 votes.
After being sworn into office in January 1999, Tanner hit the ground running. Immediately, he instituted a new, more equitable compensation plan for deputies that was based on longevity and
performance standards and that rewarded higher education, experience and bilingual abilities.
This same structured plan is used now.
“It’s something I’m most proud of,” Tanner says.
Tanner is one of the longest-serving sheriffs in South Carolina.
When he joined the Sheriff’s Office in 1981, there were just 35 deputies and a handful of support staff. Today there are 340 deputies, dispatchers, traffic managers and administrators.
Tanner has spent decades building trust with the community by operating transparently, implementing strong policies, and staying at the forefront of technology and forensic science.
During his time in office he eliminated a significant backlog of unserved warrants; created a Cold Case unit; secured national and international accreditation for the agency through CALEA; oversaw implementation of many new technologies; and established an in-house DNA and chemistry laboratory, one of only few such labs in South Carolina.
Tanner also took over the county’s Emergency Management Division in 2014, and has led Beaufort County residents through multiple hurricane evacuations.
In 2016, the county experienced its first major hurricane since 1959. So much had changed over the years, even since previous scares in the 1980s and 90s.
It was during this storm that Tanner — along with other public agencies in the county, as well as traditional media — learned just how quickly misinformation could take hold during an emergency.
The re-entry process after Hurricane Matthew was at first hampered by rumors on social media. Though medical facilities were not yet up and running, electricity was still out for thousands and many roads remained impassable, residents began to return to the county prior to the evacuation being lifted locally.
Tanner immediately recognized the need for a shift in communications strategy, not only for future storms but daily operations.
Today the Sheriff’s Office leads local agencies in its consistent communications practices and its ability to quickly and widely disseminate messages through social media and its subscriber-based news release platform, Nixle, which has become a vital service to the community.
When asked about significant cases he’s handled during his career, Tanner emphasized that all cases are important.
But there is one that will forever live in his heart and soul: the day in 2002 when two deputies were shot to in the line of duty.
Today, the memories of Lance Cpl. Dana Tate and Cpl. Dyke “A.J.” Coursen are honored in the lobbies of the Sheriff’s Office’s Beaufort and Hilton Head Island buildings.
“I cannot even begin to tell you what an impact that had on me and this organization. I will never forget it. They are dearly missed,” Tanner says quietly.
Major Bob Bromage, public information officer for the Sheriff’s Office, credits Tanner’s leadership and encouragement as a reason deputies were able to persevere after Tate’s and Coursen’s murders.
“He is a strong leader, ethical and trustworthy. What’s most important is that he cares for this community, because he’s part of this community,” Bromage says.
Bromage heads up the agency’s Cold Case unit.
Tanner created the unit shortly after becoming sheriff in 1999 in the hopes of bringing whatever closure he could to local families who had lost a loved one to violence.
One of the most well-known Cold Cases in Beaufort County was solved in 2016, when an arrest in Beaufort set into motion an investigation that brought long-sought answers to the community.
The case was solved because Tanner’s team had stayed on top of advancements in DNA technology and never stopped working.
In 2018, Isaiah Gadson, 66, was sentenced to 50 years for murdering an 18-year-old man and raping the teen’s 15-year-old girlfriend in 1980.
Tanner’s second in command at the Sheriff’s Office is Chief Deputy Michael Hatfield, the same man who took Tanner to sign out his uniforms on his first day as a deputy in 1981.
Like Hatfield, much of Tanner’s command staff is made up of experienced deputies with valuable institutional knowledge.
“Everyone has a little something different they bring to the table,” Tanner says.
Tanner is married to Angela McCall-Tanner. The couple live in Bluffton. He is involved with numerous boards, clubs and associations and has received an abundance of awards and commendations.
Beaufort County citizens couldn’t ask for a more dependable leader. Lucky for us, he’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
In fact, he is already gearing up for his next election in 2022.
“My men and women have done an excellent job using their God-given common sense and doing the right thing,” Tanner says of his time so far as sheriff. “I couldn’t be more honored to work with them every day.”