Myrtle Beach to install 800 surveillance cameras city-wide

The first wave of an additional 800 surveillance cameras in 200 locations across Myrtle Beach are expected to be in place by mid-May, the latest purchase of new police equipment in the last few months.

City Manager John Pedersen said that 132 cameras are scheduled to be installed by May 15. About 112 are expected to be installed by July 1 at the beach accesses and another 333 cameras on the back streets of Ocean Boulevard by Oct. 1.

The last 248 should be installed across the city by Dec. 1, Pedersen said.

“In most cases, they’ll be at intersections looking in all four directions,” he said.

Myrtle Beach City Council is expected to vote Tuesday on the $1.3 million purchase of the infrastructure needed to install the 800 surveillance cameras.

Police spokesman Lt. Joey Crosby said there have been about 14 cameras up along Ocean Boulevard for several years, with discussion being to install more at some point.

“Now the funding has been approved so we’re going to move forward with installing the cameras,” Crosby said.

The cameras will be funded by current appropriations – about $1.9 million – for this fiscal year. The city expects to make three payments of about $442,000 over the next three years, which will be built into the budget for May events during the next three fiscal years.

The city would enter a finance agreement with Bank of America Public Capital Corp. for up to nearly $1.3 million at an interest rate of about 1.45 percent, according to the ordinance.

The agreement will be used to acquire and install the components of the network infrastructure, including 11 servers and fiber optic cable.

Crosby said the city is in initial planning stages and officials do not know many specifics, including the exact locations of where the cameras would go, and if they would be monitored or used for investigations purposes.

The city would install the cameras in four phases – along Ocean Boulevard, at street ends, the back streets of Ocean Boulevard and other “high intensity areas” throughout the city, according to the ordinance.

Myrtle Beach opted to take advantage of a last-minute budget amendment the S.C. General Assembly passed in June that allows jurisdictions to reallocate up to one-third of accommodations tax money for law enforcement.

Myrtle Beach will be using 15 percent of the accommodations tax revenue it receives to pay for additional law enforcement during Memorial Day weekend, which is expected to be about $280,000. The city will use money collected from a 2 mill property tax increase City Council approved in September, which is expected to be about $665,000, in addition to the $300,000 that already had been budgeted for public safety that weekend.

Crosby said monitors for the city’s 14 cameras are in the dispatch office. A location for monitors for the new cameras has not been determined.

This purchase is the latest made by the city to enhance police department equipment, including about $200,000 to equip every officer with a body camera, $930,000 on barricades and traffic cones, and $140,000 for a SkyWatch surveillance tower.

This story was originally published March 23, 2015 at 6:05 PM with the headline "Myrtle Beach to install 800 surveillance cameras city-wide."