McBee Mayor Glen Odom and three current and former town police officers stand accused of operating a speeding ticketing scheme as a way to raise money to pay for municipal expenses.
Odom is also charged with allegedly attempting to garner votes for a family member in a 2024 Republican primary.
Also charged in the alleged ticketing scheme were former police Capt. Gregory Block and the town’s current and former police chiefs, Michael Irvin and Timothy Knight, respectively.
All four face charges of official misconduct and conspiracy.
Ticketing scheme allegations
SLED’s charges date back to an alleged text message conversation between Odom and Irvin in November of 2023. The SLED affidavit shows a conversation in which Odom pressures officers to step up their ticket writing efforts to pay for a loan.
The affidavit reprints several alleged text exchanges over five months, including:
Odom to Irvin, Nov. 24, 2023: “Can you try to write 4 or 5 a day to help me pay for the new loan I understand you work all the time but it will take some pressures off me.”
Odom to Irvin, March 3, 2024:"It will take 12 tickets per month from 6 officers to buy a new car and equip car and officer will you be able to do that?"
The affidavit also cites multiple McBee police officers stating that they “were under consistent pressure to write a high volume of tickets. These officers stated from approximately 2024 to 2025, ‘ten’ became the fixed and predetermined minimum number of tickets each officer was expected to write per shift.”
Former McBee Patrolman Jerriell Wright -- who triggered SLED’s investigation after speaking with WNCN-TV in Charlotte -- reported to SLED that Odom pressured him to write more speeding tickets to bring in more money, according to the affidavit.
“According to Ofc. Wright, Mayor Odom sent Chief Irvin to Ofc. Wright's house once to ask why Ofc. Wright wrote a high volume of seat belt UTTs (uniform traffic tickets) rather than speeding UTTs,” the affidavit states. “Ofc. Wright explained that Mayor Odom was upset because speeding UTTs generated up to $440 per ticket, as opposed to a seatbelt ticket which was $25 per ticket.”
According to SLED, Odom set quotas for the number of speeding tickets officers were expected to write; setting ticketing quotas is illegal under South Carolina law.
Speed trap?
McBee is a small enclave in Chesterfield County -- the U.S. Census Bureau puts McBee’s population in 2024 at 818 residents -- along State Highway 151. It is commonly known among drivers passing through, often on the way to or from Myrtle Beach, as a place to drive through slowly.
At the edge of the town is a sign featuring a finger pointing at drivers. The finger sits atop bold, red, all-capital letters stating “WATCH YOUR SPEED!”
Tuesday’s arrests are not news to drivers familiar with the town and its sign. Social media pages going back at least two years are rife with stories and comments by drivers claiming they were stopped unfairly and fined hundreds of dollars.
There is even a Reddit page from 2024 titled “McBee Speed Trap” that outlines frustrations with a town that “lives off traffic tickets.”
Election-related charges
Among the official misconduct charges leveled at Odom is an accusation that the mayor used his position to pressure officers to vote for a family member in a Republican primary for the 4th Circuit Court solicitor's position in 2024.
Mike Burch, a cousin of Odom’s, was a candidate for 4th Circuit Solicitor in 2024 and is the sitting district solicitor. Per SLED’s affidavit, in June 2024, Odom asked Wright, "Can you get your family to vote in Republican primary tue for mike burch(my cousin) and Eddie Kirkley They can vote Democrat in November if they choose.” [sic]
Odom also allegedly offered Wright $100 in gas money to “haul as many as you can."
Wright told SLED that he had taken “approximately 20 people to the polls, showed them the circled names on the paper provided by Mayor Odom, and was paid $300 by Mayor Odom,” according to the affidavit.
Odom also allegedly asked other members of the police department via text to vote for specific candidates.
He turned himself into SLED Tuesday following SLED's investigation.
