MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – Myrtle Beach Police Chief Warren Gall stood before city council Tuesday and asked for help with the recent violence in the city the last few weeks.
The chief offered several suggestions to city council to work on the problem with gun violence, but he said the violence is not just a police problem. He needs help from city leaders, community members, and business owners.
“Ocean Boulevard, in that particular area at night, is no longer family friendly,” said Gall.
Five shootings last week, shots fired last Wednesday, and shots fired again Saturday leave city leaders with one question –
“Is the environment down there, is it inviting an element that we don’t want? Clearly, it is,” said Myrtle Beach City Council Member Wayne Gray.
Chief Gall says in order to change that environment, it has to be a full community effort.
“If it’s the city’s idea and our community’s idea that we want to be a family friendly resort, we’ve got to get back to that. We’re not going to police our way into that. It has to be a community effort,” said Gall.
Council discussed several changes, including shutting parts of Ocean Boulevard down for a few hours when it gets too crowded, move officers around in the department to put more on the streets, use barricades to separate pedestrians and traffic, limit the amount of golf carts and mopeds in the city, and to change 5 blocks of Ocean Boulevard to two lanes of traffic with a center turn lane.
Myrtle Beach leaders say they’re too many mopeds and golf carts on the road, and most of them don’t follow the traffic rules.
Council leaders passed the first reading of an ordinance that would prevent new businesses from renting golf carts and mopeds and would prevent any existing rental company from expanding.
There are about 500 mopeds for rent and 250 golf carts in the city, and because police won’t chase after a person for a traffic violation, it’s impossible to enforce laws with so many on the roads.
“When a vehicle takes off on us, we usually have a tag on it where we can get investigate, do some research on, track it back to the operator and hold them accountable for what they did. For the moped, there is no license, there is no registration. It’s just a generic moped license. We have nowhere to go after that, and there’s so many of them that they get lost in the crowd,” said Gall.
Gall says the mopeds and golf carts are contributing to the chaos downtown, but it’s not all the city needs.
Plans to reconfigure traffic along Ocean Boulevard have been in the works for years. It’s something Gray has gone back and forth on, but after Tuesday’s discussion, he says it could be what’s best for the area.
“The more pedestrian activity we have, the better off we’ll be, and if it creates an environment that allows us to have more of a police presence and to deal with issues, to transport emergency vehicles in that middle lane, then I think that’s something we ought to entertain,” said Gray.
Representatives from the Oceanfront Merchants Association stood up and told council they are not on board with plans to change traffic patterns along the boulevard.
They’re asking council to take a closer look at it. So far, no decision has been made, but council leaders made it clear their number one priority will be public safety.
