Bluffton announces resignation of police chief nearly 2 years after she started; interim named

Bluffton Police Chief Stephenie Price has resigned, a little less than two years on the job, Town of Bluffton officials announced Tuesday.

Price, who came to Bluffton from the Savannah Police Department in October 2020, gave a 30-day notice, Town spokeswoman Debbie Szpanka said. Her last day will be on or before Sept. 15, officials said in a press release.

Details of why she is resigning were not immediately available.

“The Town has accepted Chief Price’s resignation,” Town Manager Stephen Steese said. “Stephenie Price is a highly trained officer who was invested in policing best practices. The programs she initiated will continue to provide future outcomes for the Bluffton Police Department.”

Capt Scott Chandler, who was interim chief when Bluffton hired Price, has been named interim chief.

When Price was hired in 2020 she became the department’s fourth chief in three years.

She replaced Former Chief Christopher Chapmond, who surprised the town by leaving to lead his hometown’s police department after less than two years in Bluffton.

Chapmond had taken over for former Chief Joseph Manning in 2018, who spent a controversial nine months at the helm of the Bluffton Police Department.

Before that, there was former Chief Joey Reynolds, who retired in 2017. He also left the job amid controversy over hefty overtime payments and officers accused of drinking on duty.

Last November, Price defended her leadership and touted the department’s retention efforts after criticism about turnover — one-fourth of the department’s officers left in her first 13 months on the job. At the time, at least 16 of the department’s officers had left, according to a review by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.

Emails obtained through a public records request show Mayor Lisa Sulka found the resignations “very concerning.” Price repeatedly said the problems with retention in her department were due to a national trend of law enforcement officers leaving the profession or retiring.

One outgoing officer blamed the agency’s turnover not on national trends, but on Price and her leadership team. His main complaints included a lack of transparency and a clique in the leadership, where certain officers are preferred for arbitrary reasons, according to previous reporting by the newspapers.

In her time as chief, Price had focused on mental health in the community and created a mental health advocate position, making Bluffton one of the few departments in the area to have such a position.

In 2021, the department received the Order of the Palmetto Award from Gov. Henry McMaster for the arrest of 23-year-old Erick Salvador Hernandez Bonilla on Lady’s Island. Bonilla, who was wanted in six murders in El Salvador with the MS-13 gang, was listed on the “100 Most Wanted” list posted by Interpol, an international law enforcement organization.