A veteran officer with the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office has been suspended and demoted following his Saturday arrest for DUI and open container, authorities said.
Cpl. Corey Whitfield, a 12-year veteran, was stopped by the Georgia State Patrol early Saturday and arrested for driving under the influence and open container of alcohol in the passenger area of the car, which was a personal vehicle. He was taken to jail and booked before being released on his own recognizance.
He was among more than 50 arrests over the weekend when police from around the region teamed up with the new HEAT unit from the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office for a major traffic safety effort in Augusta. The three-day operation focused on stopping dangerous driving.
As a result of the arrest, the sheriff’s office has demoted Whitfield from corporal to deputy with five days of suspension, a year of probation and a transfer to the detention center. His county vehicle was removed until the case has gone to court or after six months, RCSO officials said. A second offense would result in automatic termination.
According to the sheriff’s office, Whitfield was extremely cooperative and apologetic.
The weekend crackdown targeted drivers for speeding, aggressive driving, texting while driving, and people not wearing seat belts. Officers also set up checkpoints on Friday and Saturday nights to catch drivers under the influence.
HEAT stands for Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic. The RCSO unit was created to help reduce deadly and serious crashes by targeting the main causes: drunk driving, speeding, and reckless behavior. The program is getting more than $1.2 million in state and federal money over the next five years. That funding will pay for officers, patrol cars, equipment, gas, and training.
Officials say this work is important because traffic deaths in Richmond County have gone up in recent years. From 2019 to 2023, alcohol was a factor in one out of every four deadly crashes. In many of those cases, the driver had twice the legal limit of alcohol in their system. In 2019, 26 people died in traffic crashes in the county. That number jumped to 52 in 2023. Last year, there was a slight improvement, with 42 deaths reported in 2024, about a 20% drop from the year before.
