Myrtle Beach jail, court prepping for influx of arrests Memorial Day weekend

Hundreds of additional police officers are heading to Myrtle Beach and other areas of the Grand Strand during Memorial Day weekend this year, and some officials are preparing for that to translate to an increase in arrests.

“If we have more officers out there, they will be able to detect more violations that need to be addressed and need to result in a custodial arrest,” Myrtle Beach police Chief Warren Gall said.

Because of those additional arrests expected, Myrtle Beach will have clerks working the jail 24 hours a day on Memorial Day weekend, will increase the number of bond hearings held per day and have arranged for more vehicles to transport inmates to J. Reuben Long Detention Center in Conway.

The increases at the jail are one part of a strategy Grand Strand officials have put in place to tamp down on crime that can be seen during Memorial Day weekend, which turned deadly last year when three people died and seven were injured in eight shootings on Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach. Tens of thousands of people are in town that weekend to enjoy a three-day weekend at the beach or participate in festivals such as Atlantic Beach Bikefest.

“But the hope is that the more officers we have out there is ... a deterring effect,” Gall said. “We’re not going to do no-tolerance policing. That’s not the way we police any other time of the year and it won’t be how we police that weekend.”

Myrtle Beach police Capt. Kevin Heins said officers will be looking for voluntary compliance on minor offenses – ones that don’t require an arrest.

North Myrtle Beach, Surfside Beach and Horry County representatives said they are not making plans for additional offenders.

“We’ve seen increases in officers [regularly] since 2005,” North Myrtle Beach spokesman Pat Dowling said. North Myrtle Beach is expecting about 60 additional officers to help patrol the city this year. “Since then, arrests have actually gone down.”

Surfside Beach police Chief Rodney Keziah also said the town wasn’t expecting any increases that couldn’t be handled by the town’s jail.

“It’s going to be business as usual,” he said. “We have a holding facility and if we get to capacity we will take them directly to J. Reuben [Long].”

The Myrtle Beach Jail will have bond hearings in the two courtrooms every six hours beginning at 6 a.m. Friday through Sunday night, municipal Judge Jennifer Wilson said. Horry County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Sgt. Sherri Smith said the sheriff’s office is sending six deputies, as it does every year, to help Myrtle Beach with arraignments.

“But we do that for any jurisdiction that asks for help,” she said. “We do it for Loris during the Bog Off. We do it for Aynor during the Hoe Down. Whenever there is an influx of people and they need assistance.”

The people arrested in Myrtle Beach who are able to post bond will be released and the ones who can’t will be transferred to J. Reuben Long.

Smith said that there will be additional transportation vans out that weekend on stand by for Myrtle Beach, and other jurisdictions, to use as needed. On normal weekends, the arresting jurisdiction is responsible for transporting an inmate to J. Reuben.

The Myrtle Beach jail can hold about 130 offenders. If needed, Gall said corrections officers might place some of those arrested in the upstairs juvenile holding facility, but he doesn’t see that being necessary.

This story was originally published May 9, 2015 at 11:33 AM with the headline "Myrtle Beach jail, court prepping for influx of arrests Memorial Day weekend."