Wilmington mayoral candidates outline policing plans
Eight Democrats to square off in debate on public safety Thursday on the East Side
- The News Journal, WHYY and community groups are holding a mayoral debate Thursday.
- The debate, at Howard High School, will focus on public safety.
- Challengers are looking to unseat incumbent Mayor Dennis P. Williams.
As the city’s top chief executive, the mayor of Wilmington has wide latitude to shape municipal policy on public safety issues, from allocating funds and resources to selecting the police chief and shaping how law enforcement responds.
RELATED STORY: Wilmington residents to future mayor: Tackle crime
Candidates for Wilmington mayor were asked about their positions on public policy issues, in advance of the Thursday debate on the topic hosted by The News Journal, WHYY and several community groups.
The debate is 6:30 p.m. at Howard High School, 401 E. 12th St. The eight Democrats running for mayor will take part. Independent candidate Steven Washington said he is not actively campaigning, and will not participate in the debate. He will face the winner of the September Democratic primary in the November general election.
The debate is on the city’s East Side, where 12 shootings have happened in the last six months.
Candidates in their responses to The News Journal all said they want to repair the broken relationship between police and the community.
A few pledge to revive the Community Policing Unit, which police Chief Bobby Cummings in January announced had been disbanded. At the time, Cummings said the 16 officers assigned to the unit would be patrolling high-crime neighborhoods where they were needed most and pledged to make community engagement a pillar of the department across all of its 320 officers.
Better utilizing community policing officers was one of 141 recommendations made by Wilmington Public Safety Strategies Commission formed by the Delaware General Assembly and Gov. Jack Markell to address crime in the city.
The recommendations were taken under consideration by incumbent Mayor Dennis P. Williams, but not all were fully implemented. An exception was the suggestion to create a Real Time Crime Center to use data and video feeds to deploy law enforcement. That center is now being developed at police headquarters.
Former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey also was hired as a consultant to the city, which also became part of the U.S. Department of Justice Violence Reduction Network, a program to help communities to address crime.
The News Journal asked each candidate to outline the top five points of their policing plan.
Democrats
Maria Cabrera, City Council member
• Implement all recommendations of the Public Safety Strategies Commission Report as quickly as possible.
• Engage rank-and-file officers and the community in recommending changes to the department.
• Create smaller deployment sectors to allow officers to better engage the community. Entrench community policing within the department culture.
• Civilianize as many positions as possible to increase the number of sworn personnel on the street.
• Use vacant homes as police substations to increase accessibility to services within neighborhoods.
Theo Gregory, City Council president
• Policing strategies must include community engagement and be specifically tailored to the unique characteristics, challenges and opportunities of city neighborhoods.
• Wilmington police must remain dynamic and ready to adjust to evolving crime trends and activity patters throughout the city.
• In order for rank-and-file police officers to effectively achieve their objectives throughout the city of Wilmington, departmental personnel and leadership structures must foster a positive, proactive morale while allowing for efficient, streamlined communications and management.
• Enhancing public safety in the city of Wilmington requires an approach that rests on a strong foundation of intelligence, as well as collaboration and partnerships with neighboring and regional law enforcement agencies working towards the same goals.
• City leadership, including those in the mayor’s office, City Council, Public Works, Licenses & Inspections, and community leaders, should be brought to the table for regular meetings – Core Services Roundtable Discussions – to discuss with Wilmington Police Department administration the various challenges and opportunities impacting public safety in Wilmington.
Norman Griffiths, former City Council member
• Establish a well-coordinated, long-term relationship with social services agencies dealing with addiction treatment and mentorship for newly released violent offenders.
• Work with the state and other organizations to expand job and worker training opportunities for ex-offenders.
• Ensure officers are interacting with the community, civic associations, small business owners and residents on a consistent and proactive basis as part of their daily routine. Support the use of body cameras, dash cameras and mid-sized sport-utility vehicles to enhance officer visibility when on patrol.
• Work with appropriate agencies to establish early intervention and coordinated mentoring for at-risk young people.
• Promote a truly anonymous tip-line for Wilmington residents, especially when residents indicate that they do not want face-to-face meetings with police at their homes out of fear of retaliation. This suggestion, however, recognizes that prosecutions may be more difficult.
Kevin Kelley, former City Council member
• Establish a Neighborhood Engagement Division within the Wilmington Police Department that would include the Community Policing Unit, Disrupt Unit, K-9 Unit and Traffic Unit. The officers in the division would work collaboratively with the city Licenses & Inspections Department, the Office of Constituent Services and other city agencies to resolve neighborhood safety concerns.
• Restructure the Police Department to replace the current chief and inspectors. Eliminate the position of Public Information Officer, revise the patrol captain structure to have one for the East Side and one for the West Side, and reclassify one patrol captain to replace the position with an additional inspector to oversee the Neighborhood Engagement Division. Bring more officers onto the streets who are currently assigned to human resources and information technology positions and provide cultural competency training to officers. Use a Citizens Advisory Group to assist residents with reporting police misconduct.
• Take advantage of new technology for crime analysis. Make that data available to everyone and modernize communication tools by using social media. Create a community television show to provide information about police activities.
• Create a cadet program to engage residents from 18 to 25 in various police capacities. Hire youth intervention workers to better engage violent offenders and reduce crime committed by youth.
• Implement the recommendations made in the Crime Commission Report.
Bob Marshall, state senator
• Take steps to move the Police Department closer to the communities that they are hired to protect and serve.
• Keep police officers accountable to build community confidence and support for professional duties.
• Establish a Work-a-Day, Earn-a-Pay public works jobs program to give unemployed Wilmingtonians who are ready, willing and able to work an opportunity for employment.
• Recruit a strong and successful law enforcement leader with experience to be a police commissioner.
• Deploy body cameras with each patrol officer and install front and back cameras on all police vehicles.
Mike Purzycki, executive director, Riverfront Development Corp.
• Build up neighborhoods through strategic public investment, increased employment opportunities, recidivism reduction initiatives and improved after-school and after-hours activities for young people.
• Improve community relationships by providing consistent police personnel in a dedicated Community Policing Unit.
• Establish Neighborhood Stabilization Units to work with key departments including Licenses & Inspections, Public Works, Real Estate and Housing and Parks and Recreation.
• Assure district integrity and accountability with minimum staffing levels so that officers have time to respond to calls for service and make contact with the community.
• Ensure the Police Department is provided with the most up-to-date technologies for crime reporting, camera monitoring and emergency call coordination.
Dennis P. Williams, incumbent mayor
• Open the Real Time Crime Center, which will go live this year, to help the police become more proactive through the use of advanced crime analysis.
• Work with former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey to continue implementation of the recommendations of President Barack Obama’s 21st Century Policing Report.
• Continue the work of the Disrupt unit, modeled after the department’s Operation Disrupt strategy. The community-focused unit addresses quality-of-life issues in high-crime areas and uses crime analysis to direct patrols.
• Continued participation in the Violence Reduction Network, which has provided Wilmington with crime reduction resources
• Continue the three-sector deployment of officers and the Homicide Unit created by the Williams administration.
Eugene Young
• Create a dedicated Community Policing Unit and implement community policing scorecards to allow neighbors to evaluate the work of the department.
• Start programs for at-risk youth and improve prisoner re-entry programs.
• Implement body-worn cameras to ensure the safety of both the community and police.
• Improve diversity of police so the racial makeup of the department better matches the community.
• Install new leadership who can make an unbiased assessment of the department’s strengths and weaknesses.
Independent
Steven Washington, special education teacher
• Split the city into four sectors and put four officers – one white, one black, one Hispanic and one woman – in each area. Each would rotate every few hours to increase the number of officers who residents see in their communities.
• Implement eight-hour shifts for police officers instead of the current 12-hour shifts to increase productivity.
• Create a cellphone app for sending police information about crimes, including video, audio and location.
• Establish community roundtable discussions to increase transparency and get feedback about policing policies.
• Recruit more police officers from the community.
Contact Jenna Pizzi at jpizzi@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2837. Follow her on Twitter @JennaPizzi.