Sean Moriarty is the pick to lead the new Police Officers Standards Training Commission (POST).
The commission was created by a bill passed earlier this year to replace and revamp the previous Council on Police Training (COPT).
The commission’s core responsibilities remain the same – setting the hiring and certification standards to become a police officer and regulating when an officer should be suspended or removed.
Moriarty says putting POST under the Safety and Homeland Security Dept. instead of Delaware State Police (DSP) gives the commission more neutrality for all law enforcement across the state.
“It’s greater accountability to the public, more transparency to the public, providing the agency, the police officers and the agencies, with a little bit of greater oversight, more assistance and direction and helping them to be a better agency," he said.
One of the new requirements outlined in the legislation is for every Delaware police agency to be accredited by July 2028.
“So our role is going to be to collaboratively work with those agencies to help those agencies in building their policies and procedures and then training them on those policies and procedures," he said.
Moriarty adds the commission will help establish a reporting mechanism to maintain the accreditation standards across all agencies.
He says there are currently several agencies who are not yet state accredited, but POST and the Delaware State Accreditation Commission will work to make that happen over the next four years.
He hopes once all agencies are state accredited, they will have a solid platform to work off of to eventually become nationally accredited.
Moriarty has over 30 years in law force experience and recently retired from the State Police as a Major. His previously held positions include Director of Training for the DSP Training Academy and Administrator for COPT, revising the entire training curriculum and enhancing instructor development.
He is currently the only POST staff member, but he hopes the commission will eventually hire five more full-time employees.
