Myrtle Beach area cities are spending millions on cameras to fight crime. Is it working?
Police in the Myrtle Beach area are adding to their arsenal to fight crime, spending millions of dollars to do it.
It’s called a Real Time Crime Center, a use of centralized technology, such as cameras and license plate readers, that aid officers in solving crimes and finding suspects.
Myrtle Beach has been using this latest weapon in crime fighting for nearly 10 years, adding cameras throughout the city that provide more than 1,600 views available to officers and analysts, with more planned.
It is one of 150 police agencies across the country that have added one, according to one report. Now, North Myrtle Beach will also add an RTCC with the goal of it being operational by the end of this year.
It is an expensive investment, costing cities millions of dollars to implement and maintain the technology.
Local departments say it’s worth it to help its officers and to keep residents safe, but experts have questioned the success of using cameras, especially when it comes to preventing violent crimes and privacy concerns.
“Any time we have the ability to quickly give information to our officers that helps us keep the public safe and enhance the speediness of the investigation and quickly bring someone to justice, we are going to use all the technology available to us, and RTC is one of the best technologies we have available for that because we have a large infrastructure of helping cameras in the city,” said Randolph T. Angotti, police public information officer.
Second Horry County city to add real-time crime unit
Real Time Crime centers that use the latest technology to monitor public spaces and record incidents are rapidly growing across the country.
Currently, Myrtle Beach Police is the only department in Horry County that has a Real Time Crime unit. Horry County Police does not have one.
However, that will soon change as North Myrtle Beach Police is working to establish its own real-time crime center.
The city began last year replacing and adding new cameras throughout the city, according to Assistant Chief of Police Johnny Sellers. Currently, about 60% of the cameras are located at city facilities, but the network system is being expanded along major thoroughfares and roadways in public spaces, including Main Street, Ocean Boulevard and 6th Avenue South.
The city also has license plate readers that cover the entrances and exits to North Myrtle Beach. In addition to responding to and helping to solve crimes, the technology system will also help North Myrtle Beach come up with emergency preparedness plans for hurricanes or floods, Sellers said.
The department has bought about 200 cameras at a cost of $1.5 million, which also covers maintenance, Sellers said.
The police department is in the process of hiring two people to monitor the cameras. But officers have already begun using the cameras.
Sellers said that when he got here last year, officers were able to use cameras placed on Second Avenue South and Sixth Avenue South to help identify suspects in a robbery within minutes. Recently, officers were able to recover golf carts that were stolen.
“It makes us more efficient and we’re able to be a little more quicker on solving crimes,” Sellers said about the cameras.
Sellers helped build and lead Columbia Police Department’s new $8.5 million Real Time Crime Center, beginning about 2021.
In his North Myrtle Beach Police office, there are several computer screens on Sellers’ desk that show various scenes in the city. He said detectives use the cameras quite often.
Once the center is up and running, those monitoring the cameras will also be able to hear calls coming into dispatch, adding another level of assistance to officers in real time.
“I can’t have a police officer on every corner,” Sellers said. “However, I can put up cameras in public areas and monitor things.”
‘There’s not a lot of places where there aren’t cameras’
The hundreds of cameras in Myrtle Beach are monitored by at least two analysts, who sit in front of several screens that offer different views of areas in the city. However, Myrtle Beach police officers and detectives have access to the security footage.
The Sun News was denied a request to see the inside of the current center.
While the analysts don’t respond to calls that may come into 911 dispatchers, they do monitor calls to services and are able to see incidents happening live. But mostly, the analysts access video footage that can help in a case or a vehicle accident.
The project began in 2015 with 600 cameras and 15 license plate readers at a cost of more than $2 million. Since then, the city spends $237,712 annually for new cameras and maintenance, Angotti said.
“One of the biggest things for the Real Time Crime is just public safety,” Angotti said. “But it also helps our officers that are on the road. ... It helps us solve crime quicker.”
Angotti said there are so many uses for the camera system. In addition to helping with accidents or crimes, police can use the system to help find a missing person or assist in medical emergencies.
The department has also entered into partnerships with businesses and neighborhoods to also use their cameras, adding to the ability to keep eyes on the city and the activities of those who live or come here.
The city wouldn’t release where cameras are located, but they are continually being expanded. Recently, cameras were added in the Market Common area along Pampas Drive with more planned, according to a Facebook post from the city. The post revealing the cameras’ location was made after the city received many questions about what was being installed on poles.
The post said in addition to those cameras, there are 60 additional locations in The Market Common area where cameras will be placed beginning in 2025.
“There’s not a lot of places where there aren’t cameras,” Angotti said.
And police and city officials say they are working.
Nearly every high profile case the Myrtle Beach Police department has investigated in the last few years has involved some use of the camera system, said Sgt. Tom Vest by email.
Vest said that many cases that would have taken days or weeks to solve can now be solved in hours or minutes.
In June, officers worked with the Real Time Crime unit to locate and arrest a person who killed a woman at the Bus Transfer Station on 10th Avenue North.
Police also were able to arrest a North Carolina man within days of a shooting that happened in April 2023 along the busy, tourist-filled section of North Ocean Boulevard in downtown Myrtle Beach.
A 54-second video went viral on social media showing an altercation between a truck driver and two people that ultimately led to the shooting and the driver speeding off.
Police were able to use the video, as well as the city’s camera system, to track down the man in the shooting.
Mayor Brenda Bethune told The Sun News in a text message at the time that “With over 1,000 cameras, license plate readers and increased police presence, the message is that if you commit a crime in Myrtle Beach, you will be caught.”
A request to interview Chief Amy Prock was denied.
A report to city council members in October reported that the city’s crime rate is at a six-year low.
“The camera system is also a deterrent,” Vest said. “It has become common knowledge that the city has a highly effective camera program, and it deters people from committing crimes in our city.”
How effective are real-time crime centers?
Real Time Crime centers have received criticism regarding security and privacy concerns.
Sellers said there are some downfalls to such a camera system, however, there are many more positive things about the technology than negative.
“You have to remember, everybody has a camera. Everybody is videoing, they’re taking pictures. A lot of folks have their own security cameras at their residences,” said Sellers, adding that North Myrtle Beach’s cameras cover public places and not private areas. “We’re trying to capitalize on technology as much as we can, but also we want to stay within the bounds of the law and remember the privacy of folks and just do the best we can to keep the public safe.”
Studies have shown that such crime units have helped decrease property violence and other crimes, but it has done nothing to prevent or reduce violent crime.
A National Institute of Justice study on the Detroit Police Department’s Project Green Light, a crime-fighting initiative that relies on a surveillance network using cameras, found no evidence that cameras reduced violent crime.
However, a 2023 review of Miami Police Department’s Real Time Crime Center showed that the use of camera systems and technology had a much higher rate of clearing cases involving violent crimes. A case is considered cleared when it is resolved by either arresting someone or by other means.
Officials have for years refuted Myrtle Beach’s violent crime rate based on FBI statistics. According to the FBI’s 2023 crime data, Myrtle Beach had a violent crime rate of 277 per 100,000 people - more than double of the U.S. rate. But the police department has a clearance rate of more than half of those crimes, according to the data.
The city has said those numbers are skewed as the data is based on the Myrtle Beach metropolitan area. In 2023, the U.S. Census reported that the city had a population of 39,697. However, the city’s average daily population could reach more than 100,000 when taking into account people who work, commute or visit.
“With more people in any area ... there are going to go out and do unlawful things,” Angotti said. “When that population increases, any time of the year, anywhere you are, that percentage of those acts are going to increase.
“Making sure we have that technology available to our officers and the tools so they can best keep our city safe, that’s what we want. For the people who are here full-time and everybody that visits, and all the family members that want to visit our city are safe and feel safe.”
Despite the data, Myrtle Beach Public Information Director Meredith Denari said crime in the city has continued to decrease, and while the cameras have helped with that, “no one part of the crime reduction strategy can take credit for the overall success.”
‘“The camera program is highly effective at solving and deterring crimes,” she said. “If the Real Time Crime system were not making a difference, it would not continue to grow the rate that it has.”
There has also been concerns about how long camera footage is kept and how it could be used in the future.
Vest would not release how long Myrtle Beach Police keeps its footage, citing security reasons. He said by email that it varies based on the type of camera and hot it connects to the system.
Denari said ultimately the cameras are preventative and there is no end date for the addition of cameras in the city. She said the program has been successful and the city will continue to grow it.
“It’s why people invest in camera systems at their homes. (It’s) peace of mind in case anything happens,” Denari said. “This is our home. The more we can do to make it safe for our residents and visitors, that’s what we are going to do.”
