WBTW

Gov. Haley weighs in on bike fest 2015

Governor Haley visited Horry County on Friday to discuss hurricane preparedness, while she was in town News13 asked her thoughts on this year’s Atlantic Beach bike fest.

Last year, after deadly shootings in Myrtle Beach, the governor requested bike fest to end. This year’s event saw triple the law enforcement and a 23 mile traffic loop to contain crowds and keep the public safe.

While Gov. Haley says she still works with Atlantic Beach about an end, or possible date change to bike fest, on Friday she appeared more positive about it, praising what she called last weekend’s team effort by the county, cities and law enforcement.

“It worked beautifully, we saw huge reductions in crime that we had seen last year. We’ve seen a lot of difference in terms of mentality and how people talk to each other, there was a respect this past weekend we didn’t have before,” said Haley.

Meanwhile, the Myrtle Beach Police Department released what it calls its Memorial Day bike fest statistics.

It says it made a little more than 800 arrests which is down more than 26% from 2014. Police issued 1049 citations down 28%.

Haley says next years event should garner the same amount of law enforcement as 2015.