Several Williston police officers' actions are still under investigation after their handling of a Jan. 2 traffic accident.

Willie O'Neal and Stacy Johnson filed written complaints against the police department which involved Tomory O'Neal, Willie O'Neal's son.

Tomory O'Neal was driving Johnson's car.

O'Neal wanted to press charges against Josh Givens, the second driver involved in the accident, because O'Neal said Givens hit his son three times in the face after busting the driver's window of Johnson's car.

Johnson wanted to press charges against Givens for breaking her car window.

Neither were allowed to file charges the night of the accident.

Mayor Tommy Rivers said the town would follow up on the complaints after O'Neal gave a verbal complaint during the January council meeting.

Scott Neely, the town administrator, said the follow-up would involve Rodney Pruitt, an investigator with the police department, taking statements and conducting interviews to obtain the facts of the incident.

Neely said the current complaints actually have two parts.

One is whether officers violated department policies and procedures and the second part would be determining if charges should be filed against the second driver for assault.

The facts concerning violations of policies and procedures would then be presented to Neely, Rivers and council members who would decide if disciplinary action would be taken against any officers involved.

"We will react to the facts," Neely said.

For the second part, Neely said Pruitt is working with a representative of the Solicitor's office to determine whether charges should be filed.

Neely said having Pruitt conduct the investigation was "not an ideal situation" but because only possible policy violations were noted in the complaints, the investigation would be handled in-house.

Neely said the Williston Police Department does not have an internal affairs department to handle such complaints because of its size and budget.

Neely said if complaints involving criminal accusations were made against officers, those complaints would then be handled by an outside agency such as the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.