MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – With the start of the 2018 tourist season a couple months away, talks about police barricades along Ocean Boulevard are back on the table.
During a budget retreat Wednesday, council members agreed the city must take some sort of direction on the issue for the upcoming season soon. First they had to establish if the barricades are needed again.
Most members said they felt the barricades were effective at keeping crowds moving and making the Boulevard safer. Now the issue becomes how long they should stay up and what they should look like.
For about a month last summer on a stretch of Ocean Boulevard, you could not miss the big silver barriers lining the sidewalk. “The look of a metal barricade can be very ominous,” said Mayor Brenda Bethune. Which is why if the city puts them back up this season, she said she wants them to be more appealing.
Bethune showed council pictures of barricades in New York City that are covered with fabric and designs. “This just looks a little more hospitable and inviting,” she said.
Council also talked about when the barriers should be put up. “All council members were in support of continuing to use the barricades for the big, special events like Memorial Day and all,” said City Manager John Pederson. “The question is whether or not we continue them into the season.”
Councilman Mike Lowder said it was not the barricades that helped improve safety but the increased amount of officers on the waterfront during the summer. He suggested council start that saturation earlier, around March.
“You send a message early, that early crowd goes home and they say, ‘hey you know what, there’s a new sheriff in town,” Lowder said during the meeting.
Pedersen said it is impossible to know if the barricades or extra officer presence were more effective. “Last year there was such a huge cry about making sure that we got a handle on the types of issues that we had that we weren’t willing to find out what would happen if we stopped doing one,” he explained.
Ultimately council agreed it comes down to what comes out of future meetings with Police Chief Amy Prock. Pedersen said that Prock has cited the success of the barricades multiple times in the past.
Council continued to talk safety down on Ocean Boulevard when Bethune expressed it’s time that North Carolina steps up to help cut down on crime in Myrtle Beach. She told council she plans to meet with lawmakers from both states to discuss a partnership between law enforcement.
Right now North Carolina state law prohibits them from sending down officers, but that does not go both ways. That means South Carolina can send officers to North Carolina to work with their agencies, but north can’t come south.
Bethune said with the recent violence Myrtle Beach has seen on Ocean Boulevard it is time law enforcement resources are mutually shared. She noted that crime travels over the state line and that a lot of the crime seen in Myrtle Beach is committed by people who travel down from North Carolina.
In the past, South Carolina has sent officers to the north as needed, whether that be seasonally or on weekends.
“I hope that we will be able to develop that relationship with them and get them to see this is really a need,” Bethune said. “That as a neighbor this is the right thing to do.”
Bethune said she will meet with South Carolina Representative Alan Clemmons next week, who is trying to schedule them both a meeting with Governor Henry McMaster.
