Two minutes of talking with Sullivan’s Island Chief of Police Glenn Meadows and you will find yourself constantly adjusting between wonder and amazement. He’s only 62 years young and he’s already lived several lives of duty.
You might first discover that he was just recently promoted to his new position in February, but before you can even say congratulations, he’ll add that it came “43 years after I first began my career.”
Meadows started in 1981 with the Newport News, Virginia, police and retired as a sergeant with them after 25 years of credited service.
His idea of retirement meant taking a little time off, then entering the civilian market in February 2006 as the director of training and operations for DynCorp International. In that capacity, Meadows helped manage operational and training needs for over 100 personnel assigned to personal security details in Iraq and Bosnia in support of Department of State task orders.
Meadows spent 11 more years assisting different corporations for other Middle East assignments, split up among three tours in Iraq and six tours in Afghanistan in a civilian rule of law advisory capacity. The tours started in February 2009 when he accepted deployment to Iraq as DynCorp’s director of Iraq operations, providing operational oversight and support to corporate operations in Iraq and Kurdistan.
Never mind the extensive responsibilities, such as an anti-terrorism/force protection section, battlefield training sessions on insider threat recognition, mitigation for over 700 U.S. Marines and advising, mentoring and training command element sections to better execute their anti-terrorism force protection – all of which lasted in some form until 2020 when he returned to the U.S.
After Meadows graduated with honors from the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy as a Class 1 Certified Law Enforcement Officer in 2021, he joined the Sullivan’s Island Police Department as a patrol officer that same year. Then, he was promoted to deputy chief of police in March 2023.
And if you feel compelled to ask why Meadows isn’t contemplating retirement instead of readying for another 40-plus years, he’ll just say, “I’ll be in law enforcement until…”
And why not? After defying the laws of aging and accruing enough law enforcement experience for 10 police chiefs, Meadows might just now be hitting his stride – all in an effort to make Sullivan’s Island the safest town in South Carolina.
“We’re a unique, tight-knit community,” Meadows said. “We have an excellent team of dedicated professionals who are committed to serving our area to the best of their abilities. And this is where I intend to be until my next, and final, retirement.”
Which, if you haven’t guessed, could be a long time in coming.
By L. C. Leach III
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