The Myrtle Beach Police Department briefed outside agencies coming in to Myrtle Beach to help with Atlantic Beach Bikefest this weekend.

Those agencies are doing things differently this year than previous years to keep the area safe.

“We look at the entire operations from last year to see where could we improve at for this year,” said Myrtle Beach Police Captain Joey Crosby.

He says they’ve made some changes to their Bikefest plans this year.

“There’s several things that are different. There’s not going to be very visible to the public, as part of our operational plan,” said Crosby. “But, there are things that we’re doing to enhance, that way we respond to calls for service. There may be difference in the cone pattern, there may be difference in our deployment of our resources.” 

Law enforcement agencies like SLED and SCDNR will help out and Capt. Crosby says the traffic pattern that lasts from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. every day this weekend was well-thought-out. 

“Our goal with this traffic pattern is to implement it only if the traffic conditions warrant it,” said Crosby. “Last year, it was only needed for approximately four and a half hours, so as you see, if it’s not needed, we do not put it in place.”

They’ve also added patrol officers, with a focus on the waterfront area, and they’ll have a tiered response, meaning they’ll send the right amount of officers to handle each situation instead of too many, or too few.

Data retrieval and intelligence behind operations, brought in by outside agencies, will also be at the forefront of the plan.

“Their expertise, such as intelligence they may have, the data software that they have for that intelligence piece, so we’re grateful for them to come in and help us out with that,” said Crosby.

When we asked how law enforcement predicts how many folks will be in Myrtle Beach this weekend, Capt. Crosby says they’ll continue to follow history.

“We have no way to really predict that, so we look at what years past, the attendance for years past, and plan accordingly,” he said.

Myrtle Beach Police Chief Amy Prock says this weekend’s Bikefest is quite possibly one of the most challenging events for law enforcement in South Carolina.

Local and statewide law enforcement ask you to avoid the roads if at all possible to minimize the amount of traffic.