A special meeting will be held by Dewey Beach Town Council later this week to discuss a request to add more police officers.
In a letter to the town council, Dewey Beach Police Chief Constance Speake asked for the beach town to hire three additional officers.
In the letter, Speake says she thinks the manpower increase would greatly enhance the department’s capabilities, and would increase officer safety, while improving the level of service to residents and visitors.
Currently, a 12-hour shift requires a staffing minimum of eight, and Speake writes that schedule can be a challenge if there’s any officers on vacation or out because of illness or injury.
In proposing the three full-time positions, Speake says it would build enough manpower to allow for illness, annual leave, and training classes without pulling manpower from one shift to another shift.
It would also allow for a minimum of two officers working at all times.
In the letter to council, Speake writes the addition of the new positions would also reduce the number of officers brought in from outside agencies on summer weekends.
She adds she would use the offseason to ramp officers' training rotations to identify and develop each officer’s expertise like traffic enforcement, criminal investigations, and evidence collection.
Dewey Beach Town Council meets to consider the proposal at a special meeting on Friday at 4 pm.
