Last week, David Jones, a Youtuber from South Carolina trekked to Highlands to ‘audit’ the Highlands Police Department.
In many of his videos, Jones visits different police departments, court houses and town halls in the attempt to educate his viewers on how they operate and if they operate correctly.
“What started me on Youtube is the freedom that I have in America,” Jones said. “I have sat down with mayors, sheriff’s and chiefs of police to really get a hold on what the Constitution is. I do ride-alongs with local departments and try to help the people understand the jobs of our local governments and try to be transparent with our local governments.”
With his 145K subscribers and 23,947,013 views on his Youtube channel, News Now South Carolina, comes a lot of backlash to what he is doing.
“As a minority here in the South, I get a lot of push back,” Jones said. “There are a lot of uneducated people that think I’m a trouble causing minority with nothing better to do. I find that funny because I have a full-time job.”
According to Jones, several people emailed him asking him to come to Highlands to check out the area and the police department.
“I had thousands of emails begging me to come to the area,” Jones said. “I was kind of hesitant because it is a small backwoods type of area.”
In Highlands, Jones stopped by Town Hall and asked for the annual budget and said he had no issue.
“I want to know what the people are being paid to do the job we pay them to do,” Jones said in the video.
After leaving Town Hall, Jones stopped by the Highlands Police Department and met with Capt. Mike Jolly, which he said was a very genuine, positive interaction.
“My interaction with Capt. Jolly was something extremely genuine and positive, which is what I want every interaction with a law enforcement official to be like,” Jones said. “Capt. Jolly understood his job and understood as an employee of the public, he works for the public. His main job is to really hammer down on public relations and not be strictly law all of the time. I think what Capt. Jolly did was great and he has gotten a lot of praise for it. I’ve gotten thousands of emails about him over the past week. I think that was a huge step for the Highlands Police Department.”
In the video, Jones asked Jolly several questions including what the mission of the Highlands Police Department is.
“Our mission at Highlands Police Department is like any other small town police department, which is to protect the public, protect property and answer calls for service,” Jolly said in the video.
In the video, Jolly said the reason he came to Highlands is because the community is so open to everybody.
“The community is very welcoming,” Jolly said. “It is great to work with this community. It is very easy to do our job, as far as working with the community. We’ve built good relationships with the shops, business owners and people. It is a very tight knit community.”
At the end of the day, Jones said what he does has a purpose.
“Not everybody is going to support it,” Jones said. “But I know that what I do today may change something in 50 years. I may be dead and gone by then, but at least I know what I did had a purpose.”
So far, the video on Jones’ Youtube channel has 16,835 views.
To watch the video, visit News Now South Carolina on Youtube.
- By Christopher Lugo