New Castle County Police

•Police call and dispatch centers County-wide were combined over 30 years ago forming RECOMM (Regional Communications Center). Wilmington and Newark Police still maintain their own call and dispatch centers.
•Late last year, the County and State Police undercover drug units combined resources and work jointly in drug investigations on an every day basis, and are housed in the same office. This has eliminated any duplication of efforts in undercover drug investigations in New Castle County.

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Several years ago, police management and the Fraternal Order of Police negotiated the current shift configuration. After 2 years of research and development, the current shift was implemented that maximizes staffing during peak demand hours, while at the same time giving the officers a “livable” work environment.
•A Special Operations Section was formed that combined several smaller specialized units within the department to accomplish a mission of timely intervention using varied resources to urgently address community crime and quality of life issues.
•A weekly operations meeting was instituted about a year ago that brings all of the departments resource leaders into one room to discuss current and future policing needs of the citizens. Resources are flexed and allocated to address those needs, then re-evaluated the following week.
The Police Information Portal was developed as a central web-based electronic repository of operational as well as administrative information for the use of all officers. This information is pushed out through each officer’s laptop computer along with interactive crime analysis information that the officer can use for his or her daily duties.. This system has enhanced communications among the various police units by reducing the amount of time an officer must expend seeking information from varied sources throughout the department as well as externally through e-mail. This system has also allowed us to reduce the number of patrol roll call sessions, and allowed officers to immediately go in service at the start of their shift.
The New Castle County Police are currently members of task forces such as the U.S. Marshals Task Force, FBI Violent Crimes Task Force, Delaware Safe Streets initiative with Department of Corrections, and the DEA Task Force. Membership in these task forces serves to leverage those organizations’ resources to assist us with varied policing needs within the County.
•Policing functions such as SWAT and the Crisis Intervention Team, are done in an “on-call” fashion to allow those officers to continue to do their normally assigned tasks, but be called in only when needed for those particular events.
•Detectives, evidence detection, and the drug squad are assigned to work the most productive day and evening shifts, yet are on-call by pager for assignments when they aren’t normally working. This allows the maximum resources to be assigned during the normally busiest times, yet gives the department the availability of these resources around the clock.
•Grant funded overtime is judiciously used to supplement crime and problem solving efforts throughout the County. Assignments are based upon timely crime analysis as well as input from the communities themselves regarding their current policing needs.
•A County alarm ordinance was passed last year that brought in an outside vendor to administer the set up, regulation and civil enforcement of the ordinance. So far, in just a year, it has shown an approximate 10% reduction in police alarm responses.

What impact do other municipalities have on policing in New Castle County?

•Very little. Municipalities such as Wilmington, Newark, Newport, Elsmere, Middletown, and the City of New Castle, police inside the corporate limits of their respective municipality. As such, they do not impact police service in unincorporated New Castle County other than to push crime out of their jurisdiction and into the County. Funding for the other agencies comes through their own revenue sources, and exist by the will of their respective governments or charter. As a result, the towns’ residents receive a service credit to their County property tax (pay less County tax) based upon their own policing service. The County Police share a mutual aid agreement with those agencies, and assist them when called upon, usually in an emergency situation. Those agencies do likewise for the County.

What impact does the State Police have on New Castle County?

The State Police have statewide jurisdiction and responsibilities. Their Superintendent determines their staffing allocation based upon statewide needs and requests. The County has no control over State Police resources within the County. The County and State Police have had a jurisdictional agreement for over 30 years. This agreement delineates jurisdiction based upon the location of the request for service. Generally, the State Police are responsible for calls on major roadways, and state numbered routes. For the most part, these duties will entail traffic accidents, and calls for service at most businesses, as they are mostly located on the major roadways.

The New Castle County Police handle all other calls, mostly in neighborhoods, communities, apartment complexes and areas where the majority of the population resides. In cases of emergency calls when the agency with jurisdiction is unavailable or responding from a great distance, the other agency will respond for that department until the situation is stabilized. Each agency will also serve as back up for the other during more routine calls. Dispatchers for both agencies are located in the same room in RECOM, and communicate freely.

Cases of each agency responding for the other have been minimal, and at an equal ratio.

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