Violent crime is headed down in Myrtle Beach. More money could be on the way to keep it that way

With increased pay for Myrtle Beach police officers on the way, the city is taking additional steps to modernize its force even as violent crime rates drop.

Officials are asking the state’s Department of Public Safety for more than $600,000 in grants to pay for a detective, crime analyst and specialist trained to work with the National Ballistic Integration Network — a clearinghouse that currently stores more than 4.5 million pieces of evidence.

The money would come through South Carolina’s portion of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a federal Department of Justice initiative that handed out more than $17.5 million in 2021. Communities have until May 13 to apply through the state.

The city also wants to buy more personal protective equipment for the department’s crime scene unit along with more more tablets so officers can work remotely or from their vehicles, reducing their exposure to the coronavirus.

“I want you to understand this. This council supports our police department 120 percent, and what I ask is our residents support them the same way,” City Council member and former city police officer Clyde Lowder said at a May 10 council meeting. “Because contrary to belief, we do have an excellent police department, and they’re out there doing their job every day, 24 hours a day, when nobody else wants to.”

The requests follow plans to roll an average 12.1 percent pay hike for police in next year’s budget — about $6,766 more a year.

According to statistics presented by Police Chief Amy Prock at a February budget retreat, violent crime has been on a downward trend since 2016. That year, 458 major crimes were logged, compared to 393 last year.

Service calls have also dropped: From 130,312 in 2016 to 114,705 in 2021, according to the department.

“We are concerned with the crime in our neighborhood. The drugs, the prostitution, we do have some assaults that have been done,” Withers Wash resident Steven Jordan told the City Council. “We constantly have the same drug addicts, drug dealers in the same spot eight days a week, they’re not being removed.”

He asked the City Council to support resident-led patrols if police can’t be on the streets.

City spokesman Mark Kruea said there are more than 1,000 surveillance cameras and an automated license plate reader system that in 2019 tracked more than 38 million tags and returned alerts on 114,000 that were connected to a crime.

“In recent years, the crime rate has gone down consistently, thanks to the city’s concentrated efforts over the last eight years or so. That’s not the public’s perception, generally, for any number of reasons,” he said.

This story was originally published May 12, 2022 at 5:00 AM.