CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – For months, we’ve told you about lawsuits and SLED investigations at the Horry County Police Department.

Now, there’s another issue that could affect your safety.

Wednesday night, an organization made up of current and former police officers in Horry County created a call of action for county leaders.

KC Canterbury is the President of the Fraternal Order of Police, and he says Wednesday night, they received calls from officers claiming the Horry County Police Department is  severely understaffed.

“They were extremely short-handed, didn’t have any extra help and just traveling back and forth all the way across the precinct to be able to answer calls,” said Canterbury.

Wednesday night, the FOP posted the following on social media:

“Horry County Council & Administrator Eldridge,

We would like for you all to know that once again your county is much less safer tonight than it usually is. You seem to not recognize the severe problem that HCPD has with its shortage in manpower. You all claim that there are 6 new hires currently in the academy, 5 that are hired waiting to go, 4 certified that are waiting on physicals & interviews with an additional 6 certified coming next week for interviews and physicals. These are great numbers for the media; however, the real story is this is a bandaid to your problem and these officers won’t hit the road on their own for 6 months.

In the meantime, TONIGHT, you are running at less that 50% capacity in just the South Precinct alone. This means your citizens that voted for you will wait much longer for an officer to get to them. This means that an officer will be unable to adequately patrol an area because they will be running their butts off writing reports in a reactive manner. This is aside from the fact that this is a safety issue for our Brothers and Sisters that choose to protect the citizens of this county. This is completely UNACCEPTABLE!!! Don’t worry though, since you all fail to realize these issues, we will continue these posts until the problem is FIXED.”

We asked Canterbury why the post was addressed to Horry County Council and County Administrator Chris Eldridge.

“They’re in charge of the county. They’re the ones that control the funds, and they’re the ones that are at the top of the list. It starts with them and comes down,” said Canterbury.

County Administrator Chris Eldridge could not be reached for comment.

It’s a problem Horry County Council member Johnny Vaught says he knows they have.

“We are not at the levels we want to be at obviously. We have openings that we’re constantly trying to fill,” said Vaught.

Vaught says they swore in five new officers last week, but that training takes time and a lot of money.

“It’s not like just been able to go out and put it in the want ads. You can’t do that. So, it’s an involved process,” said Vaught.

Even after officers are trained, Canterbury says they leave the department for higher pay, better benefits, and better morale, and until the county makes changes there, nothing would change.

“It’s a revolving door so you can hire as many as you want, but if they’re continuously leaving, you’re still in the same boat.”

News13 requested statistics from the county, and right now, they have 17 open positions in the department.

In their most recent effort to hire more officers, they had 377 applicants. That’s nearly half the number of applicants they had last year.

Of those 377 to apply, the department only hired 11. We’re told that’s because the others didn’t meet some qualification, didn’t return needed information to the department, or withdrew themselves for consideration.

Canterbury says the FOP applauds the county’s efforts to hire new officers, but says until changes are made for seasoned officers in the department, they’ll continue to leave.

According to the Horry County website, a “Class One Patrol Officer” makes about $4,500 less than a non-certified Myrtle Beach City Police Officer.