Myrtle Beach Police Department shares 2024 goals
MYRTLE BEACH S.C. (WBTW) – The Myrtle Beach Police Department provided updates and shared its 2024 goals during a workshop in front of the city council on Tuesday.
Police Chief Amy Prock shared that crime numbers have dropped significantly just from 2019 to now. In 2019, the police department responded to 4,523 crimes. In 2023, that number dropped to 2,681.
“With a decrease overall, we continue to have an increase in our self-initiated calls for service, which shows our proactive commitment to enforcement as well as safety in our community,” Prock said. “As we have discussed over the last several years with the initiatives in our intelligence-led policing, we have seen a decrease in our part one crimes.”
In 2023, MBPD added 11 new city cameras, a booking team and neighborhood team officers, mental health training, CPTED training and completed more than 30,000 keep checks of locations in the city.
In 2024, there will be increased intelligence led policing, focused on victim and property crimes. There will also be software initiatives and a drome program to improve investigations and a victims assistance initiative.
The department was also granted was a new ferro scanner, which can process crime scenes in half the time. In addition to that, they are working on a “Save a Casing Program” where officers will go to a shooting range, bring their own firearm and ammo, and collect their shell casings.
“We’ll put them in an envelope with their then number and the model number of their gun and the date that it was collected. So that way, in the unfortunate event, if their firearm is ever missing or stolen, that they can provide those shell casings,” Capt. Traci Chanaca said. “So if their farm is using any kind of crime, it can help us to solve those crimes faster and get the farm back to its rightful owner.”
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Gracie is a multimedia journalist at News 13 and is from Cleveland, Ohio. Gracie joined the team in June 2023 after graduating from the University of Alabama in May. Follow Gracie on Facebook, Instagram and X, formerly Twitter, & read more of her work here.
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