Chief of Erskine College Police Department
South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy
Profile
Chief Matthew Busby serves as Chief of Police, Fire & Life Safety, and Emergency Management, bringing more than two decades of multidisciplinary public safety experience encompassing law enforcement, fire and rescue services, emergency medical services, emergency management, technical rescue, special operations, training, and incident management.
Experience
Busby began his public safety career in 2001 as a firefighter and remains active in the fire service today. He continues to serve as a firefighter and instructor and works within South Carolina’s fire service training system, helping train and develop current and future public safety professionals.
He began serving in Emergency Medical Services in 2002 and is a Nationally Registered Emergency Medical Technician (NREMT). He also serves as an EMS instructor, teaching emergency medicine and pre-hospital care. Despite his administrative and leadership responsibilities, Busby remains an active responder—you may just as easily find him on an ambulance or fire truck when someone in the community needs help.
Busby is a South Carolina Class 1 law enforcement officer and a graduate of Class 496 of the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy. He was commissioned and sworn as a South Carolina State Constable since 2006. A third-generation police officer, firefighter, and EMT, public safety and service have been part of the Busby family for generations.
Community Work
In addition to his responsibilities at Erskine, Busby serves with the Abbeville County Department of Public Safety as the ACERT Special Operations Technical Rescue Lead for the Abbeville County Emergency Response Team. The mission of Special Operations is straightforward: when an emergency goes beyond the ordinary, find a way to solve it.
Whether the problem is hundreds of feet above the ground, deep below it, underwater, inside a confined or collapsed space, in moving water, across remote terrain, or somewhere conventional responders cannot safely access, Busby helps bring together the personnel, equipment, planning, and technical expertise necessary to reach the problem and develop a safe solution.
Special Operations may involve technical rope and high-angle rescue, confined-space rescue, structural collapse, trench and excavation emergencies, swiftwater and flood rescue, dive operations, wilderness and remote-area rescue, complex extrication, aviation and helicopter-supported operations, unmanned aircraft systems, hazardous environments, and other unusual or technically challenging incidents. Busby also serves operationally as an EMT and firefighter, allowing him to approach these incidents from a truly multidisciplinary perspective.
When the problem is high above, deep below, underwater, off the road, difficult to reach, or simply outside the normal playbook, the mission remains the same: figure out how to safely get there and solve it.
Public Safety and Education
Busby holds a degree in Emergency Management from South College and has devoted a significant portion of his career to public safety education, instruction, and professional development. He has served as an instructor across numerous public safety disciplines, including the fire service, emergency medical services, emergency medicine and pre-hospital care, criminal justice, hazardous materials and CBRNE response, technical rescue, special operations, search and rescue, emergency vehicle operations, emergency management, and incident command.
Throughout his career, Busby has focused on bringing public safety disciplines together rather than viewing law enforcement, fire, EMS, rescue, and emergency management as separate functions. That multidisciplinary approach is reflected in his work at Erskine College and throughout Abbeville County, particularly in preparing responders and organizations to manage complex emergencies through training, planning, coordination, and unified incident management.
Personal
Busby and his wife live in the Due West community with their three children. He serves as a Deacon at New Hope Baptist Church.
Away from work, Busby enjoys Harley-Davidson motorcycles, working dogs, and the assortment of random farm animals that seem to come with family life in the country. The Busby family believes in living life to the fullest and staying connected to the people and community around them.
Busby has spent much of his adult life serving the same community where his family lives, works, attends church, and calls home. For him, faith, family, community, and public service are closely connected, and those principles continue to guide both his professional career and his personal life.
