Myrtle Beach police give busy downtown street the ‘flush.’ Plans to do it again this weekend
Myrtle Beach police implemented a “flushing” policy along one of the city’s busiest streets last weekend - hours after a shooting that went viral on social media.
The incident on April 15 happened on a night that included several other serious crimes.
It appears that police have plans to flush the streets again this weekend.
Chief Amy Prock told city leaders in an email April 16 that Ocean Boulevard was “flushed” between 10 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. on April 15 and 16 as officers tried to keep people from congregating and worked to clear parking lots.
The practice, said city spokesman Mark Kruea, is nothing new.
“We have turned traffic off the Boulevard for 15 or 20 years, as needed ... When traffic comes to a standstill, the officers will turn vehicles onto Kings Highway so that traffic can move,” he said in an April 21 email.
Doing so allows other city staffers to safely empty trash cans and prepare for the next day’s business, Kruea said.
“The objective is to eliminate or prevent the traffic jam so that Ocean Boulevard can function,” he said.
And it appears that police are ready to make it routine.
“This one we just want to test out this weekend if it’ll still work with the differences in the roads and crowds and all that sort of thing. Then we’ll evaluate it and see if we want to go forward with it,” Myrtle Beach Police Capt. Bryan Murphy told WMBF.
Murphy could not be reached for comment April 21.
Ocean Boulevard kept police busy
For more than four hours on April 15, officers worked to clear pedestrian and vehicle traffic on Ocean Boulevard as service calls mounted, Prock said in an email the next day to City Manager Jonathan “Fox” Simons.
Prock said call volume continued to be high throughout the evening, resulting in “multiple traffic and pedestrian stops related to vehicle violations, pedestrian violation and noise resulting in arrests for driver violations, loitering, guns, and drugs.”
City leaders released Prock’s email to The Sun News Thursday.
Police said Thursday that Edward Arnell Williams Jr., of Charlotte, North Carolina, was charged with attempted murder, discharging a firearm into an occupied motor vehicle and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
The confrontation, which happened around 7:30 p.m. April 15, was captured on social media and went viral, which helped police identify Williams, Prock said in a statement earlier this week.
Mayor says city safe place to live and visit
Patrol routes along the city’s oceanfront districts were condensed by several blocks last year, which authorities credited with a 9% drop in year-over-year service calls between March and September.
Despite the spate of activity, city officials say Myrtle Beach remains a safe place to live and visit. “We have a very safe city,” Mayor Brenda Bethune told The Sun News in a text message earlier this week.
“Unfortunately we sometimes have people who come here to do the wrong things. 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.”
The city has seen nearly a 25% drop in its violent and property crime rates since 2017, a result of what authorities say is more aggressive policing methods and stronger community partnerships.
Officials for years have refuted claims South Carolina’s most popular tourism spot is also among America’s most violent, saying statistics used to come up with that ranking are skewed due the relatively low year-round population.
In 2021, for example, Myrtle Beach was home to 36,543 residents — putting its violent crime rate at 12.34 per every 1,000 people based on FBI statistics.
But taking into account people who commute, work, visit or attend events, the city’s average daily population swells to 155,000 —leading to a violent crime rate of 2.84 per 1,000 people.
