Myrtle Beach OKs measures to increase police presence downtown. Here’s what it means.
Ocean Boulevard visitors will continue to see a large police presence for the remainder of the summer after Myrtle Beach officials took steps to mitigate unlawful behavior that plagued the area in recent months.
A resolution was approved on Tuesday declaring each summer weekend — July 17 through Sept. 6 — an “Extraordinary Event.” Officials also advanced an ordinance that amends portions of the extraordinary event ordinance granting City Manager John Pedersen and Police Chief Amy Prock the ability to make any immediate decisions if public safety is threatened.
Since Myrtle Beach reopened to tourism on May 15 following a shutdown for coronavirus, there have been eight shootings near Ocean Boulevard. Police said three of those were gang-related.
However, there has been a noticeable decrease in gun violence on the Boulevard since the extraordinary event designation was enacted last month. Since June 19, the first extraordinary event weekend, the city received assistance from nine other local and state police agencies.
“We originally did this just for three weekends to see how it went,” Councilman Gregg Smith said during Tuesday’s City Council meeting. “Going how we hoped it would go, we should approve this.”
While the resolution will immediately go into effect, amending the extraordinary event ordinance requires a second reading. The ordinance would allow Prock and Pedersen to shutter businesses and impose a curfew along Ocean Boulevard.
According to the city code, an extraordinary event is defined as a large-scale gathering, permitted or non-permitted event that has a history of attracting or is expected to attract a significant number of vehicles or people exceeding 10,000 that could have an immediate impact on the city’s public health, safety and welfare.
The designation, which is normally used for high-volume holidays like Memorial Day, has been in place for the last four weekends along Ocean Boulevard. The declaration also allows the city to request assistance from the federal, state and other local governments and close down streets by implementing a traffic congestion plan.
According to the proposed ordinance, businesses will be forced to close “only upon the failure of at least one previous effort to achieve compliance, and to be effective only from the moment of such order until that business normally reopens (but not sooner than four hours).”
If that action is taken, Pedersen and Prock must provide a report to the City Council within 12 hours explaining their decision, according to the ordinance.
Furthermore, the duo could impose a curfew in certain areas of the city impacted by the extraordinary event. Pedersen said a curfew wouldn’t be citywide, just where it’s needed.
“This would allow the manager to impose a curfew if it was necessary to deal with the outcome of an extraordinary event,” Pedersen said. “Nobody wants to impose a curfew; it’s a last resort type of thing.”
Currently, a curfew can only be implemented during a civil emergency, such as a hurricane. A curfew was recently put in place when the city was threatened with violent protesters following the murder of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis while in the custody of a white police officer.
The proposed amendments also aim to make car and truck shows, such as the Nationals Truck Show and Mustang Week, extraordinary events, due to a history of “disruptive and unlawful behavior.” Memorial Day Weekend, the Fourth of July and Labor Day weekend would also receive the designation.
“Those tend to be the three biggest weekends we have during the year,” Pedersen said. “That would allow us to treat each one of those as extraordinary event with the purpose of having a larger than ordinary crowd.”
When this proposal was first submitted to the council for approval on June 17, several business owners were outraged, stressing that the community needed more enforcement to combat the violence and growing tourist crowds, not closing businesses. The outcry resulted in city officials agreeing to review the proposed amendments for a later vote.
Rachel Beckerman, marketing and brand manager for the SkyWheel, had spoken out against the amendments, said on Tuesday there has been a vast improvement in the downtown and boardwalk areas over the last few weeks. She added that increased presence in recent weeks resulted in 911 calls answered much faster.
Additional officers, from outside agencies, will remain in place from 21st Avenue North to 17th Avenue South on Ocean Boulevard and on certain back roads, with the tourist stretch broken down into sections with officers assigned to each area. However, the plan can change if there’s a mass gathering of people, traffic or if issues arise.
A traffic plan will also be enforced every weekend for the remainder of the summer from Friday to Sunday to ease congestion. Similar to recent weekends, parts of the boulevard will be shut down around 9 p.m. between 16th Avenue North and 3rd Avenue South to divert traffic to Kings Highway. The plan could go into effect earlier if necessary.
Additionally, pedestrian barricades, which were erected over the Memorial Day weekend, will also remain to implore those to use sidewalks and crosswalks.
This story was originally published July 14, 2020 at 12:38 PM.
