‘Passion for serving people’: ODPS chief featured in training video

Austin will be featured in an online training video for law enforcement, City of Orangeburg spokesperson Jennifer Van Cleave said.

Van Cleave said the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy is highlighting Austin for his 49 years of public service.

The name of the training series is “The Line UP,” said Maj. Florence McCants, spokesperson for the SCCJA.

“It’s an online magazine for law enforcement. It features various subject matters related to law enforcement and agencies from all around the state. It discusses new trends in law enforcement, new ideas and concepts,” McCants said.

“It allows law enforcement to learn from one another and to help spread the word of new things going on in the various agencies. We will often talk with other agencies that also work with law enforcement, like the S.C. Department of Mental health, as an example,” McCants said.

“The media unit meets regularly to discuss new tops for the show and Director C. Austin came up for discussion for having an exemplary law enforcement career,” she added.

“The decision was then decided to feature him and his work transition from one agency to another and his overall career,” McCants said.

Austin met with Irvin Walker, Line UP’s producer, on July 28.

“He asked me about how my public service impacted my ministry,” Austin, a minister, said during an interview the following day.

“First of all, you’ve got to reverse that,” he said, “because it’s my ministry that affects my service in public life. It’s back to relationships. Believing in what you do and recognizing that it’s a call to service.”

Austin serves as pastor at the Village of Hope Fellowship Church in Columbia.

 “I have a passion for serving the people and I am blessed with the energy to pursue the passion to serve in an honorable and noble profession that I have had since I was 7 years old,” he said.

“Growing up I wanted to be a policeman, a preacher and a teacher/coach and God has blessed me to do all three and I am not tired yet,” he said.

Austin’s connections to Orangeburg reach across four decades:

• He graduated from S.C. State University and then served as the school’s director of public safety.
• Austin’s late wife, Dr. Ava Frederick Austin, is an Orangeburg native. The couple lived in the Garden City from 1977-86.
• Austin has been affiliated with ODPS in some way since 1977, when he played softball with the Fuzz softball team.
• Austin has served on interview boards to select the past three directors of ODPS and he considered applying for the chief of police position prior to being appointed deputy chief for the Columbia Police Department.

Austin believes God worked out the timing in accordance with his purpose, Van Cleave said.

 “Orangeburg has a special place in my heart,” Austin said. “I am here at this time because this is the time God chose. I am elated to be here and especially to be of service to the people of this city.”