In a squat building, a bright red that stands out amid worn bungalows on Sullivan Street, Quiedra Henry hovers over a sink in her Threadz Weave Salon. She and her brother, Lonzo Sales, grew up near here, the Greater Sullivan and Green Avenue neighborhoods.
She’s washing a customer’s hair — the Rev. Roslyn Harris, pastor of Shady Oak Baptist Church on White Horse Road. A visitor wanders in and wants to talk about Sales, who joined the Greenville Police Department in February 2020, three months before George Floyd’s murder.
“We need Black men with integrity on the police force to help shape culture in the Black neighborhoods,” Harris says.
Henry shares an incident that illustrates why she believes in her brother, his work and his standing as one of only 14 African American cops among the city’s personnel allotment of 204 sworn officers, according to the Greenville Police Department.
The previous week, she recalls, a Black man was walking down Sullivan Street. About the same time, a car pulled up. Neighbors called police because they believed the driver was armed. A police cruiser arrived. White cops went after the pedestrian.
“They pulled their guns out, pointed ’em dead at him, and he wasn’t even in the wrong,” she says, but then adds: “A Black officer did end up pulling up — it wasn’t my brother — but it was like a different vibe.”
And that’s partly why Sales left BMW after five years as a robotics technician to join the force.
“It’s just that personal connection with my home, this is where I grew up,” he says. “I know people who look like me.”
Another reason he became a Greenville cop: His children, his 9-year-old son, Lonzo Sales III, and daughter Ava, 4.
“I want something my kids can be proud of,” says Sales, who turned 30 on Feb. 3. “This is for the kids because I know they’re going to be smarter than me. Yes, it was initially for me, but now it’s the right thing to do in the long run.”
In his first stint after the academy, he was assigned to patrol Zone 2, which includes Pleasantburg Drive, Pelham Road, East North Street and Stone Avenue. Now, he patrols downtown, not far from another of the department’s four zones: Zone 1, which encompasses his alma mater, Greenville High School.
He talks wistfully and often about his neighborhood. His grandmother, Annie Ruth Sales, lives around the corner from Henry’s salon, and his father, Lonzo, owns an HVAC business there.
From time to time, he’ll swing through the Sullivan Street area in his cruiser.
“I can say, ‘Hey, I can go to a neighborhood where I grew up in and go see the old people that still there and haven’t seen me since I was younger and just talk to people.’”
When Sales first considered joining the police force, Henry says family and friends weren’t so sure, but now, she says: “I was glad that he went through with it.”
More than that, she says, “I got my brother’s back. This is what he wants to do, this is what we’re doing.”
During an off-shift interview, you see Sales’ humor, he laughs often. He clearly loves his job, his hometown. Still, he says he occasionally fields “different insults” from those his white partners get, but, he is, after all, a cop.
State and county police officers by the numbers
South Carolina total: 12,432
White: 9,892
Black: 2,153 (of those, 497 are women)
Hispanic: 275
Asian: 48
Native American: 18
No response: 7
“Other”: 39
“I try not to take stuff personally, but, like, yeah, there are always bad people everywhere — not just bad cops, bad people everywhere,” he says.
He mentions the time he approached some youngsters around Woodside. One of the African American kids told him she wants to be a firefighter.
At the same time, though, he says, “I don’t even really count this as me being person of color. I just think it’s because I’m from this area. I know people in the neighborhood, it’s not just the good ones, so I can go to a neighborhood and they’re more willing to talk to me. “
He values the lessons he learned from Mama Annie, as Henry calls her, and from his granddad, a pastor.
“Before you can speak on something, make sure, you know enough information about it: that’s different cultures, different living arrangements, different environments. Before you speak on it or judge it, learn it, take the time to learn it.”
At the end of the day, that’s the heart of police work.
“Ninety-five percent of the job is being able to talk to people and build relationships — that’s my favorite part about it.”
Sample of Greenville County’s 10 law enforcement departments
Greenville County Hospital System Law Enforcement Service (highest proportion of Black officers in the county)
Total: 35
White: 27
Black: 8
Simpsonville Police Dept.
Total number of sworn officers: 37
White: 34
Black: 1
Mauldin Police Dept.
Total number of sworn officers: 45
White: 37
Black: 3
Source: South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy.
Editorial note: County department numbers exclude other groups and ethnicities, such as Hispanic and Asian) as provided by the SCJJA.
Police officers nationwide
Sworn police officers nationwide (2000)
White: 77.4%
Black; 11.7%
Sworn police officers in cities with a population from 50,000 to 99,999 (2016)
White: 74.7%
Black: 7.6%
Total workforce nationwide (2019)
Number of people employed as police officers: 812,000
Average age: 40
Gender: 85.2% male
Average salary: $70,446
Average male salary: $71,622
Average female salary: $63,656
Sources: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics and Data USA
