As a police officer of nearly 20 years, Major Todd Catoe knows how dangerous the world can be. He knows what it’s like to raise children and send them out into that same world, hoping they make good decisions and praying for their safety. And he knows how much the field of law enforcement — and attitudes toward it — have changed over the years.
So when his son decided to become a sheriff’s deputy, the elder Catoe knew he was going to be great at it.
“As a parent, you try your best to protect your children from the ills and dangers of the world,” Major Catoe, who is second-in-command of the State Transport Police, said of his son, Master Deputy Kevon Catoe of the Richland County Sheriff’s Department. “Once he decided that’s what he wanted to do, if he was all in with it, then I’d be all in too. If you’re going to do something, then be all in with it. And be of service to others.”
The younger Catoe — who inherited not only his father’s dimples and sense of humor, but also that desire to serve others — remembers what it was like growing up the son of a law enforcement officer.
“As a kid it’s cool because your dad’s the police,” Deputy Catoe said. “He walks up into your school with the police car, the gun and the badge — kids respected that.”
While being the child of an officer carries with it many proud days, it also carries some anxious nights.
“It was nerve-racking when he was out working nightshifts,” recalled Deputy Catoe. “I’d watch the news and hear about stuff involving officers, and I would just hope that he came home.”
That sentiment has come full circle since the younger Catoe became a sheriff’s deputy.
“The things he worried about with me on nightshift are the same things I worry about with him now,” Major Catoe said. “I may have popped up at the academy a couple of times while he was going through, just to check on him. The world I grew up in and that my dad raised me in was not the same world that Kevon grew up in.”
But he has a unique opportunity that few parents of law enforcement officers get: To watch his son work on live TV during occasional appearances on “On Patrol: Live.” The REELZChannel documentary series follows officers from multiple agencies across the country on weekend nights, documenting the various situations and people that officers encounter on shift.
“Initially I was a little apprehensive,” Deputy Catoe said. “The thought of messing up in this job alone I didn’t like, but the thought of messing up on national TV is a whole different thing.”
Since then, Deputy Catoe has become part of the lineup of Richland County deputies who appear semi-regularly on the show, where he is known for his calm and collected demeanor and ability to defuse tense situations.
“It’s a surreal, proud-dad moment,” Major Catoe said. “But then my phone starts going off with texts like, ‘Hey, is that your kid on TV?’”
And then, Major Catoe said ... there are the comments. When the sheriff’s department posts a photo announcing their lineup for that evening’s show, fans provide what Catoe called “lively” responses to his son’s handsome looks.
“I made the mistake of screenshotting some and sending them to my mother,” Major Catoe said laughing. “She responded, ‘I’m not on social media, but they’re about to make me get on there. Who are all these women?!’”
Outside of the show, Deputy Catoe said it’s helpful to have a father he can reach out to with questions about everything from radars to traffic stops, or just to talk. They often go to the shooting range together, and Major Catoe quips: “He likes to shoot my ammo. He buys his own now, but he’s still at around a 6,000-round deficit.”
“I can go to anywhere in South Carolina or Georgia and they’ll know my dad,” Deputy Catoe said. Similarly, Major Catoe is realizing that more people recognize him as “Deputy Catoe’s father” instead of the other way around. That tends to happen with the passage of time, he said.
“As the kids get older, your relationship changes,” he said. “You no longer have to be the disciplinarian. You’re still giving guidance, but your relationship continues to evolve. Kevon is my hero — all of my kids are my heroes.”
