Horry County Public Safety Committee Meeting - February 11, 2025
Horry County Public Safety Committee Meeting - February 11, 2025
The Horry County Public Safety Committee met on February 11, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. in the County Council Conference Room. The committee approved several resolutions and received annual year-in-review presentations from the Police, Fire/Rescue, Emergency Management, 911, and Public Information Office departments. All resolutions were passed unanimously.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of the agenda and minutes from the October 8, 2024 meeting.
- Resolution to transfer $719,215.60 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds from the Homelessness and Mental Health budget category to create a mental health services project within Public Safety, funding a coordinating director position for opioid and mental health initiatives.
- Resolution to amend the Horry County HOME Consortium HOME-ARP Allocation Plan, reallocating $600,000 from non-congregate shelter development to supportive services ($400,000 increase) and tenant-based rental assistance ($400,000 increase).
- Resolution to award HOME-ARP funding: $700,000 to Eastern Carolina Housing Organization for rental development (4 units) in the Racepath community, and $75,000 to Veterans Welcome Home and Resource Center for homelessness prevention supportive services.
- Resolution adopting the Horry County Owner-Occupied Housing Rehabilitation Program Policies and Procedures Manual, codifying repair programs (emergency, essential, substantial, reconstruction) and affordability periods.
- Resolution declaring surplus a service weapon (Glock Model 45, serial BLHH188) for retiring LT. Terry Adkins (Sheriff’s Office, 30 years of service).
- Resolution declaring surplus a service weapon (Glock serial BZXC871) for retiring Sgt. Jill Domogauer (Police Department, 16 years of service).
- Resolution declaring retiring Police K9 Vanda as surplus for retired officer Jeff Whitmire.
Public Comments & Testimony
- None.
Discussion Items
- Penalty for Running from Police: Chief Leonhardt reported an increase in vehicles fleeing law enforcement. First offense is a misdemeanor with a $500 fine and a minimum 90-day sentence. He advocated for bond reform at the state level. Councilman Anderson noted a state bill is being pursued.
- Police End of Year Review: Chief Leonhardt highlighted 2024 statistics: 82 new hires, 383 sworn officers, 72 civilian staff. Calls for service increased by approximately 10,000 to over 122,000. Part one crime data was provided. Special operations included 65 SWAT calls, 139 bomb calls, 87 K9 deployments, 44 negotiations. Drug seizures: 640 pounds of drugs, 367 firearms, over $500,000 cash, 936 arrests, and nearly 4,500 traffic stops. The Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) handled 2,520 calls, serving 1,650 individuals, with 31% connected to critical services. The Animal Care Center maintained a live release rate over 90%. Plans for the fifth precinct and SRO program expansion into middle schools were discussed.
- Fire End of Year Review: Chief Tanner reported 83,000 calls (highest on record), with 82% medical. The department responded to 607 structure fires, 276 hazmat incidents, and 740 wildfires. Community risk reduction efforts reached 55,000 people. Staffing includes 532 career, 57 administrative, and 128 volunteer personnel. 80 recruits were in the academy. The advanced EMT program is awaiting state approval. The harm reduction program expanded to four members. Three new stations were opened, and rapid intervention team packs were installed on all engines.
- Emergency Management End of Year Review: Sam Hodge reported receiving the SC Emergency Management Agency of the Year award. The department coordinated responses to Tropical Storm Debbie and deployed staff to upstate counties for Hurricane Helene. Over 10,000 'Know Your Zone' hurricane guides were distributed. More than 30 training sessions and exercises were conducted. The multi-jurisdictional all-hazard mitigation plan is being updated. Unified command structure with public safety partners was emphasized.
- Brief on Full Scale Exercise (March 12-13, 2025): Sam Hodge outlined 'Operation Outage Watch', a two-day exercise simulating a long-term power outage. Day 1 activates the Emergency Operations Center with ~80 participants from 50 agencies. Day 2 involves field exercises: base camp setup, emergency fuel distribution, and a point of distribution for commodities, with ~100 participants from 20 agencies.
- 911 End of Year Review: Renee Hardwick reported 555,352 phone calls, 320,557 incidents dispatched, 672,413 NCIC transactions, and 4.66 million radio transactions. Average 911 call duration is 2 minutes 24 seconds. The center dispatches for 14 agencies. A round-robin with coastal cooperatives was successfully implemented. An electronic policy tracker was introduced. Radio communications software and hardware were fully upgraded. 10 new hires will start February 24. The center has 3 vacancies.
- PIO Office End of Year Review: Mikayla Moskov reported 7 full-time team members (8 positions). The team manages 443,000 followers across public safety social media accounts. In 2024, they conducted 2,000 media contacts/interviews, processed ~4,000 FOIA requests and ~2,000 incident report requests. They battled misinformation and scam accounts. A social media feed tool was added to the county website. Team members completed various training programs. Special events support included the PGA Tour, Bike Week, and visits from the Vice President and President.
Key Outcomes
- All eight resolutions were approved unanimously by the committee.
- The committee received annual reviews and will continue to monitor staffing, response, and program developments.
- The next Public Safety Committee meeting is scheduled for March 11, 2025.
Meeting Transcript
As always, we'll start out with the invocation and please run council now. We could all bow our heads for a moment. Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity to come together and uh work to better our community. Father, uh, being the public safety committee, we are we're exceptionally uh proud and thankful for our first responders, whether they're in the 911 office, whether the officer that's uh going to be with somebody at the at a really bad time in their life. Your father, we ask for continued blessings. We ask for patience, guidance, and wisdom. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag United States of America and the Republican for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all that the public input. So review and approval of agenda content. So moved. Second, all in favor, approval and minutes for October 2024. Second. All in favor? Aye. Randy Webster. Resolution. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee. Um really an exciting moment right now. Uh, if you recall back about two years ago, uh the chairman put us in charge to work on opioid and mental health issues throughout our communities. And since that time, we had the task force come together under at that point Chairman Crawford and Chairman Patt, Task Force for Mental Health and Opioid, uh, to see what can we do next. Uh, we came up with about five or six different categories, and we've been working on that ever since. Since that time, and we've been briefing you on what we have done in terms of the harm reduction specialists that fire rescue has under the critical incident team for mental health work that police department has, what's transpired transformed in the detention center and the 15th circuit uh drug court uh etc. And so we've also been working with our partners with the City of Myrtle Beach, Portland Beach, Conway and us. It came together last year, put the funding from the opioid prices money uh and created a consultant group that created our plan, our framework moving forward for this program. Uh very comprehensive plan and identified five major areas, some of that we've already been working on, but where we are now in the process is to start bringing this together at the 50,000 foot level uh and coordinating all this into a very comprehensive and focused effort. And to do that, uh we're I'm asking through this resolution that we move money that's been already identified in the homeless and mental health budget category in the American Rescue Plan Act and transferring that into public safety uh so that we can take that money and continue to move forward with this project and initially create a pay for a person or overall coordinator to help bring this together and focus it in the right direction, working with our partners municipalities who are also uh looking to uh give us additional funding on an annual basis to go toward this as well. So proportional based upon the money that's been provided through the opioid act as well. So this is not only just for opioid opioid and mental health, address homelessness and the other issues that we have within our broad community, not just the unincorporated area, but all of Oregon County. And this will get us closer to the goal role line. Uh that's only a multi-year moving forward focused effort. Um, which chairman was here, he's been very much in favor of this, and I know the rest of the member of this committee and others are as well. So that's what I'm asking for in the resolution today. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion that we move forward with staff's recommendation for the transfer and funds. Second. All in favor? Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you. Two, three, and four, Ms. Beh, Primer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, and we greatly appreciate the opportunity today to bring to you uh some items that normally would have gone through uh the administration committee in order for us to expedite these actions. We appreciate your hearing them today. The three items that I have are all about housing programs, which are also operated out of my department. The first is to amend the Ory County Home Consortium Allocation Plan. Again, we run this housing program for three county consortium.
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