Time for one upstate Delaware police force?

With some Wilmington neighborhoods besieged by gunmen and downtown workers increasingly worried about personal safety, Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice Leo E. Strine Jr. thinks the three major police forces in northern Delaware should become one.

The notion of merging city, state and New Castle County police into a single upstate unit makes perfect sense to Strine, the most prominent official in Delaware ever to advocate for an idea that has been discussed quietly for years, but never seen a concerted effort to make it a reality.

Powerful political and law enforcement interests, led by Mayor Dennis Williams and Gov. Jack Markell, are against such a radical transformation. Even those who believe the idea may have merit – such as City Councilman Michael A. Brown Sr. and county police chief Elmer Setting – say it would be difficult to achieve.

Lewis D. Schiliro, Markell's homeland security boss, doesn't endorse Strine's proposal. But he said if current plans fail to rein in crime in northern Delaware, merging forces could be a possibility in the future.

"We're having this conversation because we're not successful," Schiliro said. "The bottom line is this has to change. You can't continue to go this way."

Yet, Mayor Williams insists that a combined force would infringe on Wilmington's "home rule.'' And state police union president Tom Bracken said the the idea is "fraught with disaster."

Strine countered that in a small state where where political leaders often boast about how they cooperate to solve problems, government officials have an obligation to pool resources to protect the public. Criminals don't recognize government boundaries, and neither should crime fighters, the chief justice said.

The situation is dire, Strine said, with Delaware's largest city recently dubbed "Murder Town USA" by Newsweek magazine, and the DuPont Co., long its financial bedrock, moving its headquarters to the suburbs. Strine and other officials also worry that new DuPont spinoff Chemours, which plans to occupy the flagship building downtown, might only be a short-term tenant.

Delaware has high-quality police forces, Strine said, but the overarching framework that ties them together in northern Delaware is absurd.

"We are one community," Strine said in an interview with The News Journal. "Anybody could look at Delaware and ask, 'Why would anybody set up the police structure the way it is?'

"We don't have a city of Wilmington and a New Castle County. We have at best a northern New Castle County. How can that be the most efficient use of resources to have multiple organizational charts, heads of personnel, all the back office people? Why don't we pay for one really good back office of crime and then direct the resources to fight it."

Combining the three big forces, while leaving alone Newark and five other smaller upstate town police agencies, at least for now, would streamline operations, Strine said. There would be no need for separate command structures, 911 centers, SWAT teams, homicide units, or personnel or records departments, freeing cops now working at a desk or in special units to hit the streets.

More importantly, when a section of Wilmington or the county needed to be flooded with police, having nearly 1,000 officers on the force instead of just the city's 300 cops would be ideal, he said.

"You can't ignore the fact that if you want to have a whole lot of resources moving to where the map heats up," Strine said, "it's a lot easier when you have one police force."

Named chief justice a year ago to a statewide court system overburdened by criminal cases, Strine has since advocated for bold proposals that in years past would have been unheard of from Delaware's judiciary, let alone its top jurist. He recently formed a task force that is studying racial disparities in the state's prison population and legal systems.

Now he is taking on policing.

Combining the three forces would need approval from the General Assembly, County Council and City Council. As Delaware's chief judicial officer, Strine doesn't have the authority to make it happen, but is using his bully pulpit to push the proposal.

"It's not working or we wouldn't need to have the conversation," Strine said. "We need to stop thinking in isolation. It's time to put the public's safety first."

The stakes couldn't be higher for the survival of Delaware's economic engine, said Strine, who has often spoken on behalf of Delaware as an excellent place to form business entities and do legal business.

"Look at what's going on, the jobs lost,'' said Strine, who served for 16 years on the Chancery Court that solves financial disputes. "For every business that doesn't locate here, that has ramifications decades from now."

'Are we proud of this?'

Strine first spoke publicly about a unified force Jan. 19 at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day breakfast, saying the "appalling" level of violence in Wilmington demanded such a change. He elaborated on his remarks during an interview with the newspaper.

Wilmington's violent crime rate was sixth highest in America among 450 cities with populations above 50,000 in 2013, and third worst of cities of similar size, FBI statistics show. Wilmington is home to 71,500 people.

Crime in the city, where about 1 in 13 Delawareans live, helped make Delaware the sixth most violent state – worse than regional neighbors Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the newspaper's analysis of FBI data shows.

Already this year, eight people have been shot dead in Wilmington and 14 wounded by gunfire, a pace that by late summer would shatter the city's record of 29 homicides in 2010. County police also have had a rough start to 2015 — four homicides thus far, compared with 10 for all of last year.

"Are we proud of this?" Strine asked.

He began pushing the merger concept at a time when the financially strapped city, which last year revamped its deployment practices, needed a grant from the state just to pay overtime for extra patrols in hot spots.

The county cops, which have invested tens of millions of dollars in crime-fighting technology, are being used on Sunday nights in Wilmington to help control dangerous areas with zero tolerance for even petty crimes.

State troopers – about 250 of whom are permanently assigned upstate to patrol roads, schools and shopping centers – are not currently deployed in the city, though from 2011 through 2013 some worked there with "Operation Pressure Point," an initiative aimed at reducing gun violence.

Strine said these efforts, while well-meaning, are not long-term solutions.

Mayor, governor oppose Strine

Many powerful officials want no part of a joint force, including Mayor Williams, a former city police detective.

"Absolutely not," Williams said, noting Wilmington has had an established command and control structure for more than a century. "That's the way it is and that's the way it's going to stay," the mayor said.

Williams, a former state legislator, said his old colleagues in the House and Senate could solve some jurisdictional issues by passing a "simple piece of legislation" that allows police in different agencies to cross boundaries to investigate crimes.

Williams then cut off the interview: "You've got my answer. I'm done."

Gov. Markell, who nominated Strine to the high court, also doesn't endorse the concept.

Markell and lawmakers recently formed a Wilmington crime commission to propose solutions for the beleaguered city, and has hired experts, including a firm headed by New York City's former police commissioner. A set of recommendations is due by March 31.

Markell said agencies across Delaware have a "high level of cooperation, perhaps more than at any other time." He doesn't believe a joint force "would have a measurable and material impact on reducing crime."

Patricia Blevins, Senate president pro tem, also disagrees with Strine.

"I do support better communications among the police departments," Blevins said. "Wilmington, county and state should be meeting regularly to share where they can help each other. And I do support some resources from the county and state going into the city to get things under control."

The heads of the city and state police unions also object.

"I don't know that it would even work,'' said Harold Bozeman, head of Wilmington FOP Lodge #1, noting that many officers applied to the city force to work in an urban area, while many county and state police wouldn't want such duty.

Bracken, of the Delaware State Troopers Association and an old soccer teammate of Strine's, said state patrol troops are ready to assist Wilmington as they did during Operation Pressure Point, when one trooper even took a bullet after a traffic stop.

But state troopers also face their own "staffing shortages and dilemmas almost every day," he added. "Who is going to handle the calls for service we have every day? Nobody is sitting around here twiddling their thumbs."

Schiliro, whose department oversees state police, noted that in New York City, a concerted effort that held precinct captains responsible for crime in their areas helped to substantially reduce homicides and violent crimes over a wide area – all under one police force.

Schiliro, who once headed New York's FBI field office, said he's hopeful the governor's panel, of which Wilmington Police Chief Bobby Cummings is a member, helps the city mount a better plan to attack crime. "If we we can implement it and show it to be successful, we're on the right track," he said.

Echoing many leaders, Schiliro said, "The bottom line is that we can't afford to lose jobs in that city. If they do that you are on the way to being a Camden."

The New Jersey city about 30 miles northeast of Wilmington has a much higher rate of violence than Wilmington. With a limited financial base following years of economic decline, Camden laid off much of the police force, leaving swaths of the city literally unprotected. That led to the disbanding of the city police in 2013 and the creation of a Camden County police force, which only patrols within the city limits. The rest of Camden County is protected by municipal forces.

Despite hurdles, idea 'makes sense'

Not everybody in political or law enforcement circles is negative on Strine's proposal.

City Councilman Brown, who heads the Public Safety Committee, has publicly advocated a city/county force.

Brown sent a letter to Williams and County Executive Tom Gordon last April, requesting that a joint task force study merging the two forces. "Crime has no boundaries," he wrote, adding that both agencies have a "strong working and continually growing relationship."

The councilman said his request was basically ignored. "Somebody needs to give up some sovereignty and nobody wants to give that up," Brown said. Politicians and police leaders who take such a stance put "their own agenda above the safety of our citizens."

Strine's idea also resonates with Delaware Public Defender Brendan O'Neill, who doubts officials could come together to make it happen.

"If we were starting from scratch, a single metropolitan police force for New Castle County would make sense. It may still make sense now," O'Neill said. "The problem is that present-day politics make it a real longshot."

Master Cpl. Michael Zielinski, who heads the county police union, said the concept is reasonable when viewed from a perspective outside law enforcement circles. His members often say they hear talk that a metro force is looming.

"But the reality is that trying to get from point A to point B would be extremely difficult," Zielinski said.

Beyond the issue of political fiefdom, major technical hurdles include how to combine the differing pay structures – state police make the most money, followed by county and then city – as well as command staffs, departmental rules and internal operations, he said.

"I don't know how you would do that. It probably sounds like a great idea but all the logistical nightmares would be difficult to get through," Zielinski said. "I'm always interested to see the plan on paper, then let's hash this out and talk it over."

Gordon also believes the idea has merit, but said it's not feasible now because the county already has a "tough burden" affording its 370-member force.

His police chief, Col. Elmer Setting, said Strine's proposal to merge "the big three" intrigues him, though he wondered how much each government would pay, and which agency would lead the force.

"I don't think Strine has such a bad idea, but when you look at the funding and the problems of restructuring and the other questions, I don't know if he, or anyone, is ready to answer them." Setting said.

"But we spend so much time defending the old model. Is there a better way?"

Not 'the most complicated thing'

Strine said he's aware of the arguments against changing the policing paradigm – costs, control, union deals and other issues. But he argued that the enormity of Wilmington's violence, and how the city could detoriate further if bloodshed isn't curtailed, outweighs such concerns.

While Schiliro and others point out that New York City reduced crime without joining up with surrounding forces, Strine countered that America's biggest city has one force. "Is New Castle County, Delaware, harder to police than the five boroughs of New York City?" he asked.

It's preposterous, he said, that state officials have to scramble to find ways to help Wilmington pay for overtime patrols.

"Why are we bargaining about overtime between police forces,– he said. "I heard we have enough police. If we had them all on one force, we wouldn't be talking about overtime, we'd be talking about shift schedules."

Political considerations and logistics aside, the chief justice said Delaware's crisis demands major changes, not in the future but immediately.

"I'm not a police person but I know this. In times of urgency, when people put the public's interest first, then things can happen a lot quicker than you think," he said.

"I don't believe that in the United States of America, the most complicated thing in the world would be the way to police New Castle County in an effective way."

Contact senior investigative reporter Cris Barrish at (302) 324-2785, cbarrish@delawareonline.com, on Facebook or Twitter @crisbarrish.