People volunteer for all sorts of causes for all sorts of reasons.

Volunteers are the unsung heroes of this world. They see a problem and instead of waiting for somebody else to fix it, they step up and say “I can help.”

So when Richmond County’s Special Response Team (SRT) agreed to work for free on their off hours to fight crime, it came as something of a surprise. If other law enforcement agencies have done it before, we can’t remember it.

What started it was some Dobbins Heights residents and elected officials complained about the lack of law enforcement. Some small towns, like Ellerbe don’t have a police department of their own but pay the county to have an officer available. Dobbins Heights doesn’t. The town depends on the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office when crime happens. Sheriff Dale Furr has 486 square miles to cover and 48-full-time deputies to do it with and a limited budget.

“We got to talking about it in our monthly training session,” said SRT Commander Robbie Taylor. “People don’t understand how stretched out we are. It’s hard. But we understand that the budget is tight.”

The SRT has 16 active members; 14 Sheriff’s deputies and two Hamlet police officers.

“Every one of them has volunteered to come out and work for free as much as needed, as often as they can,” said Taylor. “Not just in Dobbins Heights but all over the county. This is not just directed at one area. We want to increase the safety of neighborhoods with a lot of criminal activity in Ellerbe, Norman, Rockingham, East Rockingham and Hamlet. And we’ll actually also be going to areas where they don’t have any trouble.”

We applaud the SRT team for their gesture. If nothing else, when people see a lawman in their neighborhood is sends a positive message. When people can come into contact with a cop and get to know them, it’s had benefits for both.

Yet we wonder however if catching bad guys is just part of the solution. The Daily Journal’s pages are often filled with reports about people being arrested. We have stories about how when it comes to judgment, many never see any serious jail time, even for repeat offenses. Catching crooks may be the easy part.

We have to have a local jail sufficient enough to hold them and a legal system equipt to give them a fair trial. If guilty, there needs to be a system that punishes them on the state level, and not a revolving door that puts them back out onto the street. Until we have all those things, Richmond County could put 50 new lawmen on the street and it won’t fix the problem.