New Castle County Council unanimously approved an ordinance increasing the retirement age for police officers at its Tuesday meeting.
The retirement age for police officers was 55 until then.
The revision said officers who want to retire at 55 this year needed to notify the county before May 1 to qualify for their service retirement pension at 55.
It says the change is meant to account for law enforcement agencies’ growing pains, which include declines in recruitment, increased early retirements and officer shortages.
Council member Kevin Caneco was one of the ordinance’s prime sponsors.
“This simply just raises retirement age of our our New Castle County police from 55 to 57,” Caneco said.
Council member Jea Street voted in favor of the ordinance.
“When I raised this two or three years ago, it was like, ‘Street, go kick rocks…’” Street said. “I thought it was a great idea when I made it, but they brought it through, and I'm pleased to support it. That'll help, in my opinion, tremendously toward getting us to 415.”
That’s the number of officers New Castle County has at full force, which was expanded from 400 in 2021.
The ordinance will affect the county’s budget due to estimated salary cost increases in the coming years.
The county’s Department of Public Safety requested the raise in retirement age to account for declines in recruitment, increased early retirements and shortages of experienced officers.
The local police union also supports the ordinance, according to the Council president.
