Seaford Police Chief Marshall Craft presents his department’s five-year strategic plan to City Council.
At a meeting Tuesday, Craft said it’s the first such plan in the department’s history. He told council members a plan like this is necessary now, as the city’s population - and its demand for police services - continues to grow. Craft says Seaford’s population has soared by some 33% since 2016, and that in addition to taking more calls, his officers are also taking on new roles.
“Police are now expected to handle a broader range of responsibilities, from mental health to community outreach, all very necessary components of their job,” he said.
The strategic plan lays out a number of ambitious goals for the department, including greater efforts to increase the department’s accountability to the public it serves, something Craft has spoken about to council members in the past, and a recurrent theme in his presentation on Tuesday.
Part of that transparency effort is the creation of a crime dashboard, he said.
“You'll be seeing that come out before the end of the fiscal year where community members can go out and look at hot spots or heat maps to show different types of crime. That's part of transparency,” he said.
The plan also proposes cracking down on gang and violent crime and traffic accidents, with a goal of 15 percent reductions in each by 2028.
Meeting those goals will require more resources, however. Craft noted that the department is currently on track to be fully staffed later this year.
“We have three additional officers that are going to be graduating in June,” he told council members. “They'll go on three months of field training. But at that point, if they all make it through, we don't lose anybody, we should be at full staffing later this year by early [or] mid-fall.”
But, more officers will be needed in the coming years. While not a request in the upcoming fiscal year, Craft says the department needs to grow from its current staff of 34 to 36.
“There's a whole lot more responsibilities and requirements and mandates federally and statewide and [Peace Officer Standards and Training] requirements now that requires that staffing to be able to do the things that we have to do,” he said.
The department will also be asking for funding over the next five years for new technology and vehicles. And, Craft added, they will need a new police station in a few years as well.
All told, the improvements sought in the strategic plan could total up to as much as $3.9 million in the next five years, much of that related to the cost of a new police station.
Vice-Mayor Dan Henderson asked Craft if, by approving the strategic plan, the council and the city would automatically be committed to that spending, but City Manager Charles Anderson assured him that the spending would be handled through the usual budget process each year.
City Council unanimously approved the strategic plan, with regular updates to come from Craft.
