Irmo Town Council recently voted to increase surveillance in an area impacted by an ongoing crime influx. Meanwhile, residents have formed an alliance to push for increased safety measures.

At its regularly scheduled April 18 meeting, council approved the purchase of camera and license plate readers for areas including the Beacon Hill neighborhood, which continues to be impacted by crime spilling over from the Columbia apartment complex Harbison Gardens, which sits just on the other side of the town and county line.

The influx of crime in recent months has pushed residents to turn to the town for help, which has now responded with adding the increased surveillance to Beacon Hill, Carmel Commons, the Harbison community, Friarsgate and the area around College Street.

“This is something we have to address and quite frankly I am sick and tired of the city of Columbia cleaning out their hood and sending them all to Irmo,” Mayor Barry Walker Sr. said.

Council member Bill Danielson brought the idea to purchase the cameras to the board with the original intention of adding six cameras and two license plate readers without exceeding $25,000 for Beacon Hill, Carmel Commons and Harbison.  

After amendments from Walker and Council Member Erik Sickinger, council voted to apptove the measure with a purchase limit of $40,000, adding four more license plate readers, three for entrances into the Friarsgate neighborhood and one on College Street.

“The bottom line is we can't do anything about the City of Columbia, Harbison Gardens, leases, all of those things, other than put pressure on it,” Danielson said, emphasizing that he doesn’t want to let the issue fester until someone in the neighborhood gets shot. “We need to do what we need to do right now for our citizens in that specific campaign. Let's get it done.”

Like Danielson, local residents are looking to take initiative to solve the crime issue. They have banded together to create the Columbia Avenue Safety Alliance, which continues to push for more safety measures to be taken.

The alliance is currently made up of three members, Benjie Friday, Tammy Pierce and Audra Hawisher, who have been pressing this issue to the town and the City of Columbia

Columbia Avenue, Beacon Hill, Carmel Commons, Hamilton Park and Belmont are all locations where the alliance would like to see improved efforts to deter crime.

“I believe you took an oath, think about that from time to time.” Friday said, addressing the council at its most recent meeting. “We need cameras, we need protection. … We need a 911 system that works.”

“We deserve a safe environment to raise our kids. We have been here time and time again asking the same thing over and over,” she added.

Hawisher, a Beacon hill resident who had her home burglarized, spoke about how important these cameras would be, adding that the members of this alliance have been pushing for change for years, even decades.

According to Pierce, the alliance’s next step is to push for ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection technology that is used by both Columbia and West Columbia. In the past,  Hawisher said that when she inquired about installing the technology, Columbia City Manager Teresa Wilson said the area didn’t have enough crime to necessitate it.

The area of concern falls under multiple jurisdictions, including Columbia and Irmo police and the county sheriff’s departments for Richland and Lexington.

Irmo Police Chief Bobby Dale said previously that the ongoing criminal activity at the apartment complex could lead to quality of life issues, but he added that his department does not have jurisdiction in Harbison Gardens, which creates difficulties in addressing the problem. 

Residents in the area have been exasperated with the issue for a while now, with one citizen at the March 28 meeting calling it the “Bermuda Triangle of 911.”

County officials in Lexington and Richland say they’re aware of the issue, with Richland County Sheriff Leon Lot saying his department has been looking to establish a dialogue with the various parties to come up with solutions and Lexington County Council Member Charlene Wessinger, whose District 6 includes the impacted area, emphasizing that her county’s sheriff’s department is taking similar steps.

The Columbia Police have said they have a courtesy officer at the Harbison Gardens complex and conduct routine property checks in the area.