After graduating high school in 1971, he studied at the University of South Carolina Aiken where he earned an associate degree in police administration.

In 1993, Lott was appointed as the police chief of St. Matthews, South Carolina, a small town in Calhoun County.

[1] In 2016, Lott permitted the A&E network to feature Richland County deputies in the television show Live PD.

The show aired through 2020 until it was cancelled amid protests and riots following the murder of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer.

[6] In September 2016, Lott fired a deputy that gained national attention for flipping an African American female student onto the floor at Spring Valley High School.

But Lott drew criticism from the public when it was revealed that Bradley had more than five reports alleging predatory behavior around minors, but the department had dismissed the claims.

[8][9] In 2021, Jonathan Pentland, a white drill sergeant at Fort Jackson, was filmed assaulting a black man in Columbia.