DELAWARE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

STATE OF DELAWARE
LEGISLATIVE HALL
DOVER, DELAWARE 19901

December 8, 2015
Dennis P. Williams, Mayor
City of Wilmington
Wilmington City Council Members
Louis L. Redding Building
800 North French Street
Wilmington, DE 19801
Dear Mayor Williams and Council Members:
Last year, we were approached by hundreds of Wilmingtonians who believe we all have a
responsibility to address violent crime throughout Delaware. Wilmington has its own
Mayor, City Council, and Police Department, but this does not absolve state legislators of
our duty to our shared constituents who reside in the city.
In response to this situation, we sponsored and the General Assembly passed legislation
that established the Wilmington Public Safety Strategies Commission. With your support,
the governor signed House Joint Resolution 2 and immediately put together a statefunded commission with representatives from the community, employers and members of
law enforcement which included an appointment of your choosing, Wilmington Police
Chief Bobby Cummings.
On March 31st, the consultants presented their final report to the commission. The report
provides a detailed blueprint for how the department should be structured in order to
maximize its effectiveness. According to the report and the advice of nationally
recognized law enforcement experts, in order for the Wilmington Police Department to
realize the full impact of the commissions report, these particular recommendations must
be adopted.
1. Deployment: Adopt a metric based deployment strategy, utilizing minimum staffing
levels of 24 officers per shift. Based on the Temple University Hot Spot Analysis,
WPD needs to incorporate the Neighborhood Stabilization Unit: a six-to-seven person
community-oriented unit that would respond to statistically generated crime conditions.
This would resemble Operation Disrupt, but would be stable and targeted, without
relying solely on overtime.

2. Homicide Clearance Rate: Continue working to improve the homicide clearance

rate by supporting a major crimes unit and ensuring it has sufficient staffing, policies
and resources. The unit should participate in joint initiatives with the New Castle
County Police Department and the Delaware State Police, and should investigate
homicides and other violent gun crimes.
3. Develop a Proactive Crime Reduction Strategy: Adopt a comprehensive drug,
gang, and high risk offender reduction strategy. This would include complete
participation in Operation Safe Streets and HIDTA initiatives and continued
development of an intelligence base to support the strategy. This intelligence base
should include a career tract for detectives.
4. Technology: Improve the departments use of technology to include data acquisition,
GPS monitoring, and an upgrade of the current camera monitoring system.
5. Accountability: Adopt strict internal measures to ensure accountability of individual
officers and management. The consultants have recommended hiring a Deputy of
Operations to satisfy this recommendation.
It has been a full eight months since these recommendations were made, and still large
swaths of the report have not been adopted.
Last week, the Joint Finance Committee renewed its commitment to the City of
Wilmington by providing additional resources to the city to combat violent crime. Those
resources will be used to increase police patrols as recommended by the Attorney
Generals Office. But they also came with conditions that the city must meet, including
working with the consultants that prepared the Wilmington Public Safety Strategies
Commission report.
We share the Joint Finance Committees concerns. We as the legislators who represent
the City of Wilmington lobbied and led the charge to create and fund a commission
report to help the city reduce violent crime. Those recommendations have sat on a shelf
for the last eight months, while city officials have called for more funding from the state.
We have an obligation to do everything in our power to help the city we are privileged to
represent, but we also must insist that the city use everything at its disposal to address
this crisis. We believe that temporary actions such as this funding are important, but they
do not provide a durable path forward, such as the one outlined in the Public Safety
Strategies report. To continue to ignore this document, paid for with considerable public
funds, would further imperil the safety of Delawareans, both in Wilmington and outside
the city limits.
We urge you to endorse, adopt and fully implement the Wilmington Public Safety
Strategies Commissions recommendations particularly the ones listed above. By
working together to implement these recommendations, we can successfully address our
public safety issues head-on.

We will continue to be Wilmingtons strongest advocates in Dover, and we stand ready to

take positive steps to improve the city we all are proud to represent.
Yours in service,

Charles Potter Jr.

State Representative
District 1

Stephanie T. Bolden
State Representative
District 2

Helene Keeley
State Representative
District 3

Gerald L. Brady
State Representative
District 4

John L. Mitchell
State Representative
District 13

James Johnson
State Representative
District 16

Harris McDowell
State Senator
District 1

Margaret Rose Henry

State Senator
District 2