Gang investigators from law enforcement agencies across South Carolina, and parts of North Carolina are meeting in Myrtle Beach this week.
Almost 300 law enforcement officials, including many from throughout the Grand Strand, are attending the South Carolina Gang Investigators Association annual training. They’re networking and sharing intelligence about gang activity across the region, including the latest trends and techniques they’ve obser Horry County Police Chief Joseph Hill said one of the biggest trends is gang members operating and communicating through the dark web. Conference attendees will discuss how to track gang activity, and encrypted forms of currency online. “There’s parts of the web that these folks are communicating on, obtaining narcotics, weapons, and more importantly they’re communicating with gang members across the country, and the globe. And that’s problematic for us,” he said.
Chief Hill said the collaboration and intelligence sharing between law enforcement officials at the gang conference is critical to gaining the upper hand against gangs. “Gangs get smarter, we work harder,” he said. “We think that we’re doing everything that we can do, but there’s other agencies that have found techniques that work better than what we’re doing. We’re going to learn from one another.”
According to Chief Hill, stopping gang activity would end most violent crimes in Horry County. Of the 23 murders that occurred in last year, “I would say 70 to 75% of the murders we had last year was associated with gang violence,” he said. “Yeah, it’s a lot. And the majority of our narcotics, and not only that, but human trafficking is associated with gangs.” Fifteenth Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson agreed, saying, “I would say a majority of the violent crimes have some nexus with gangs.”
Richardson says local officers training with law enforcement from neighboring counties, and even states, is necessary due to the broad reach of many gangs. “Gangs don’t stay within borders,” he said. Chief Hill added, “A lot of gangs are coming over from Columbus County, North Carolina. They’re coming up and down the east coast, a lot of it is associated with gangs.”