The shooting death of a Florence Regional Airport police officer a month ago continues to drive calls for state lawmakers to close a loophole that puts officers and the public at risk.

Records provided by the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy show Officer Jackson Winkeler wasn't certified. He died eight days before he was scheduled to start his final, eight-week basic law enforcement course.

State law allows agencies to put uncertified officers to work for up to a year while they wait for a spot at the academy. Under the exemption, a prospective officer has to complete an approved firearms qualification program and notify the academy. While on the wait list, they're free to work as any certified officer would. They can patrol neighborhoods. They can carry guns. They can make arrests.

The law gives police departments, especially smaller ones, a backstop for dealing with two major issues: officer shortages and monthslong delays to get into the academy.

But many worry the loophole is outdated and dangerous.

The Post and Courier reached out to law enforcement personnel, scholars and state officials to speak about Winkeler's death and the exemption that allowed him to be out on patrol by himself on that day.

Charleston Police Chief Luther Reynolds said he finds the grace period bizarre.

“As long as I have anything to do with this Police Department, we will never put people out on the streets without training,” Reynolds said. “It invites risk. It’s unfair to the officer, it’s unfair to his or her colleagues, it’s unfair to the community and it’s dangerous. It’s just insanity."

Charleston police have an in-house pre-academy, which provides 10 weeks of instruction that augments the state's 12 weeks of instruction. But many small departments don’t have that capability.

“We need to give (new officers) proper equipment, proper training and proper leadership,” Reynolds said. “And we are not doing that on all levels around the state. There are big gaps.”

Seth Stoughton, a University of South Carolina professor of criminal law and a former policeman, said Winkeler’s death was “horrible, an absolute tragedy and potentially preventable, which makes it even more disturbing.”

“I think it’s dangerous,” Stoughton said of the grace period. “I think we are putting people into positions without the training resources and support they need to succeed.”

Jackie Swindler, the academy's director, said there's reason to be hopeful and that he and other officials have come up with a solution that's dropped academy wait times significantly.

Line of duty

Little is known about the investigation into Winkeler's death.

The State Law Enforcement Division, which is leading the case, has released arrest affidavits, including limited details about what occurred. A post on the Officer Down Memorial Page contained a few more details.

Around 6 a.m. on Jan. 5, Winkeler tried to stop a white, Chrysler 200 that was driving on Gilbert Avenue near the airport's terminal. At some point during the stop, the driver, James Edward Bell, 37, opened fire.

Winkeler's body was found on the ground outside his patrol car. More than 30 shell casings littered the scene.

A 9mm handgun that did not belong to the slain officer was found nearby. The Chrysler and Bell were nowhere to be seen and Winkeler's gun was missing.

Eventually, Florence County sheriff's deputies spotted the Chrysler and stopped Bell.

During the arrest, deputies found Winkeler's police-issued gun and a magazine that matched the 9mm handgun left at the shooting scene.

The officer's death raised immediate questions among some officials about why an untrained officer was out on patrol by himself.

Geoff Alpert, a criminal justice professor at the University of South Carolina and expert on high-risk police activities, called the loophole "a recipe for disaster."

"You don't put untrained people out on the street," Alpert said.

Winkeler's training record shows this wasn't the first time he'd been left on his own.

Troubling history

Documents included with Winkeler's training history show he was accused of misconduct while working with the Latta Police Department in 2017.

The town hired him in December 2016 and he worked as an uncertified officer for about three months while he waited for a spot at the academy. He left after the misconduct allegations arose.

Heavily redacted documents included in Winkeler's training file contain few details about what happened.

Latta Police Chief Derrick Cartwright was told by officers on March 23, 2017, that he should review Winkeler's body camera footage. Descriptions of the video and alleged misconduct were expunged from Winkeler's record after the state Law Enforcement Training Council ruled to dismiss the charge last year.

Documents show that during the incident in question, Winkeler was on patrol by himself and his only training was with his field training officer, who was not present at the time.

Cartwright could not be reached for comment for this story. In the documents, however, he testified that he believed Winkeler would be a great officer if given the proper training and allowed to attend the academy.

Winkeler left the Latta department on March 27, 2017. He was hired by Florence Airport on Aug. 2, 2019.

At the time of his death, he had completed four weeks of video-based training but hadn't yet attended the academy's eight-week live program, records show.

Florence Airport police officials did not respond to emailed questions seeking comment.

Academy backlog

Wait times to get into the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy have ballooned at times over the years.

In 2019, Reynolds and North Charleston officials proposed separate bids to establish a Lowcountry training academy but its governing board, heavy with officials from the Midlands, swatted the idea away.

Academy officials have long been protective of their turf, favoring a centralized facility that provides a uniform level of training to officers from departments both large and small. They worry that consistency will be lost if the system is fractured. The academy, perennially strapped for cash, also is leery of competition that might siphon off training funds.

And Swindler said recent changes have all but eliminated wait times.

Before the end of June 2019, the average wait to get into the academy was 106 days, he said. Since then, officials introduced four weeks of video-based classes to the academy's curriculum. If students pass the video courses and a series of tests, they are given a slot for the eight-week, in-person academy.

Wait times are now less than two weeks, Swindler said.

"With this, you hire them today and they start training tomorrow," he said. "We're seeing a lot of wins with this program."

Alpert is skeptical.

"If you're watching a video, you lose a lot of information," he said. "We have the same issues with online classes. Some topics work really well, but some topics, I think you need a hybrid or brick and mortar so you can discuss the issues. If they're providing legal education through a video, we may see the consequences as these young police officers get out on the street. Hopefully, it will get picked up in field training."

Continuing challenges

Despite the academy's insistence that video classes have erased the backlog, some authorities say the issues are far from gone.

South Carolina’s training requirements are already among the lowest in the country, according to Stoughton.

Officers in the Palmetto State get 12 weeks of required training at the academy and several large departments do weeks of pre-academy training before sending their officers to Columbia.

But the state standards pale in comparison to the national training average of at least 22 weeks, Stoughton said.

“The Legislature has really set up a system that is designed to fail,” he said. “This is a train wreck that you can see coming down the tracks and we don’t have the political will to commit the resources to avoid it, and that is really embarrassing.”

“When you are looking at public safety and policing, especially, going with the bare minimum seems like a really bad idea.”

Small departments continue to struggle with staffing issues.

Isle of Palms Police Chief Kevin Cornett was chief of the Springdale Police Department from 2012 to May 2019.

The pressure to find qualified officers to staff the ranks of his former department was immense, he said.

"We had eight sworn officers when I started," Cornett said. "When I left, we had 10. ... We'd get (officers) and they'd leave for larger agencies."

The chief said he was faced with some difficult decisions. Elected officials were pressuring him to put new recruits to work and spots weren't opening up at the academy.

Fortunately, spots opened up at the last minute and he avoided putting uncertified officers out on patrol, Cornett said.

"We came close," he said. "It was always in the back of my mind."

So far, at Isle of Palms, Cornett says the video classes are working and that it provides a good mix of lecture-style classroom instruction that officers then mix with practical discussion and analysis.

His agency partners with Mount Pleasant police for its instruction needs. The partnership is leading to some productive discussions.

In Florence, Winkeler had some instruction on traffic-stop procedures as part of the video segment.

But he didn't get the in-depth instruction he would have received if he were able to attend the academy in person.

Those courses spend a great deal of time on best practices for traffic stops, procedures, how to approach a vehicle while minimizing risk and provides opportunities for role-playing and simulations in addition to classroom instruction, Swindler said.

"It's so unpredictable," he said "You could stop a vehicle for a simple violation, and then it escalates."

And Winkeler may have faced a more significant disadvantage than his lack of academy training.

Bell had committed an armed robbery prior to Winkeler's traffic stop, Swindler said.

In that kind of situation, where a suspect is armed and may be willing to fight law enforcement, even officers with years of experience and training can be caught off guard, he said.

Glenn Smith contributed to this report.