Most weekends, at least one late-night scuffle breaks out in Wrightsville Beach’s bar district. Earlier this year, police chief Dan House proposed restructuring his department to increase police presence downtown during those critical hours, and Thursday, June 11, the board of aldermen approved the restructure, along with the rest of the town’s $13.2 million budget.
The restructure involves replacing a captain’s position, vacated by retiring Michael Core, with a lieutenant and an officer. The costs associated with the extra officer position are offset by cutting five reserve officer positions, which were budgeted for but not filled.
The two lieutenants will take over the administrative duties during the week, House said, allowing his four-person squads to be out on the road all day. On weekends, House said, the regular squad — consisting of a supervisor and three officers — will be joined by one of the lieutenants, Capt. P. Burdette or himself.
“We’ll be out those nights working the bar crowd,” House said, “and then we also have our detectives . . . we made their schedules change so they’ll be out at night too on Friday and Saturday.”
The beefed-up presence amounts to six police department personnel patrolling on weekends between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m., House said. Between those hours, as many as 1,000 bar patrons crowd the two-block district, Burdette said.
The department will have six officers patrolling during the day, too: four on the road and two on the beach strand to keep an eye on summer crowds that swell as high as 20,000 on weekends.
“Pretty much 24/7, you’re going to have six people on the road working,” House said.
One of the biggest benefits to having more officers on the road, he said, is the ability to police the entire island. In the past, he had to focus most of his resources downtown, and meanwhile several break-ins occurred at the north or south end of Wrightsville Beach.
“Now, we have . . . the deputies kind of babysitting the bars, and two officers on bicycles driving up and down the Lumina corridor . . . addressing quality of life issues. It will still allow for another one or two people to patrol the beach for those break-ins . . . so we’re able to attack all of these facets people want [us to].”
The new department structure won’t officially take effect until July 1, the beginning of the 2015-16 fiscal year, but the two lieutenants are already serving in an interim capacity, House said. He has also started accepting applications for the new officer position, because of the lengthy process of hiring and training.
“From application date to when they’re actually released working on their own is about seven months,” he said. “We’re hoping mid-July we’ll be able to physically hire someone . . . but then [he or she] has got 16 weeks of field training.”
Members of the police department are supportive of the change, House added.
“There’s a lot of enthusiasm internally . . . it’s something that the department has wanted for a long time, just to have a little more balance between all the entities,” he said.
The restructure is just one of the ways House says he is trying to make Wrightsville Beach safer. He recently suggested creating a citizen watch program but he said he hasn’t received enough support from residents to implement one right now.
The department’s elaborate surveillance camera system currently covers areas like parking lots, bathroom facilities and public works structure. The system could be expanded in the future, he said, although there are no immediate plans to add more cameras.
“We’re always looking to add to it. … At some point [we want to] put cameras in the park and at town hall. . . incorporate them all the way around the loop just for safety and security,” he said.
email [email protected]
