We Must Be Vigilant About Safety

The safety and well-being of our businesses, residents and visitors has always been, and remains, our top priority. We are saddened and angered by the violence that took place over the past eight days. That type of reprehensible behavior has no place in our community and will not be tolerated. We are grateful for the quick response of the Myrtle Beach Police Department who was on the scene of both incidents within a matter of seconds.

The events of the past two weekends do not accurately reflect Myrtle Beach, the community members who live, work and play here, or the majority of the visitors who vacation here each year. As the MBPD has confirmed, the perpetrators behind these callous events are gang members from outside our community who brought their disputes to our streets. In each situation police response times were less than a minute, and all suspects were detained quickly.

These recent incidents serve as a reminder that we must be vigilant about safety and commit to a relentless effort to reduce and prevent crime to maintain our quality of life. We have committed to keeping lines of communication open with MBPD and ask you to use 1-843-918-INFO and pdinfo@cityofmyrtlebeach.com to report any suspicious, illegal or problematic behaviors to local law enforcement immediately.

The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce will continue working closely with government leaders and law enforcement to identify and implement solutions to help prevent these types of incidents in the future and minimize the impact this has on our businesses, tourism and our community’s reputation. Myrtle Beach was founded as a vacation destination for families and we are going to do everything we can as a chamber to support our city and our law enforcement to ensure we remain one of America’s favorite family beach destinations.