Myrtle Beach Police Department holding recruitment event to help fill 50 vacancies

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WMBF) - The Myrtle Beach Police Department is looking to fill several vacancies, and it hopes a recruitment event on Saturday will help.

“If we build our department bigger, it’s just more safety for the residents of our community,” said Cpl. Chris Starling. “We want to make sure everybody’s safe, and the more officers we have, the better.”

Right now, MBPD has around 50 vacancies. In 2018, the city council amended Myrtle Beach’s public safety plan by focusing on recruitment and retention for the department.

“The recruitment and retention plan was put in place to make sure that we are fully staffed and at this point, we are not,” said Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune.

The recruitment event will be an opportunity for prospective officers to talk to current ones about the recruitment process. The department hopes this will help applicants feel more at ease, and also help current officers gauge interest.

“It’s just kind of an opportunity for everybody to ease the tensions with the process, get a chance to know the people that are in in your background investigations,” said Starling. “It’s a great thing to be able to put a name with a face.”

Officers want applicants who know the area but also welcome those coming from other cities.

“If we get 50 people here to be here with us, that’s fantastic; if we get 150, it’s even better,” said Starling. “It gives people an opportunity, gives us people down the line that if we’re interested, we can run with that from that point.”

The department has some new officers currently in training, but the process is long. Typically, new members will not get out on the streets for about a year from the time they are hired.

“It’s not something that you’re hired right now and you’re on the road tomorrow,” said Starling. “We’re going to train you so that you understand the Myrtle Beach way, how we do things.”

Bethune said the Myrtle Beach Police Department does good work and officers should want to come to the area from other cities.

“When you look at the media nationwide and you look at other cities and other governments and how they treat their police, that is not what happens here,” she said.

The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Warren S. Gall Police Annex.

Copyright 2023 WMBF. All rights reserved.