03-20-2006, 06:02 AM
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| Police to patrol Bluffton waters---(South Carolina)
Quote:
BLUFFTON -- Bluffton police plan to be covering both land and water before the summer season hits.
New Bluffton Police Chief David McAllister said he hopes to have routine boat patrols on the May River by May.
"There's so much water activity around here; I'm almost overwhelmed by it," said McAllister, who started on the job late last month. "We're trying to do this on a continual basis."
Plans call for the department's only boat to be out on patrol Friday through Sunday during each week.
The Bluffton Police Department has had boats since 2002, but it hasn't been able to establish routine patrols for a variety of reasons, including a lack of qualified drivers and a move of the department's headquarters.
The department currently is equipping its boat with a radio tower, lights, identifying markings and other amenities to get it ready for regular use as a police craft.
Two Bluffton police officers will go through water law enforcement training at the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, McAllister said, and hopefully will complete the program by May.
Bluffton police can start patrolling if the officers aren't done with training, but they wouldn't be able to make arrests, McAllister said.
Even if the two officers aren't finished with the course, "(w)e can still be out there to have a presence," he said.
Police will be looking to crack down on unsafe behavior on the river, including intoxicated boaters, overcrowded boats or personal watercraft riders jumping wakes.
In the past, the department has received complaints about boats going too fast near docks. Boaters are not permitted to travel faster than idle speed within 50 feet of a dock.
The Bluffton police patrols would be in addition to natural resource department and sheriff's office patrols in the area, but the town program would be able to provide more focus on the May River, McAllister said.
The planned boat patrolling is one of several previously established programs that McAllister hopes to have in place soon.
"If they serve a good law enforcement function," McAllister said, "we'd want to get them done as soon as possible."
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