Dover Police Department is launching its Enhanced Visibility Patrols during the summer months in an effort to deter crime.
The Enhanced Visibility Patrols are meant to put more police officers in areas that Dover PD has identified as crime hotspots to deter crime before it happens.
These increased patrols will in part utilize officers ordinarily assigned to schools, repurposing them while students are on summer break. Other officers in the department will also take part.
Dover PD is facing recruitment challenges, something police departments are struggling with nationwide. Lieutenant Mark Hoffman says these patrols help address that by taking advantage of school summer breaks.
“It’s no secret we’ve had issues with recruitment. With school being out, it opens up a small opportunity to reallocate the resource that we typically use for school resource officers to help balance out some other areas. So we’ll be utilizing some of our school resource officers for proactive, high visibility patrols.” he said.
The patrols are meant to be conspicuous with the goal of deterring crime before it happens. Hoffman notes these patrols will appear throughout the city, but there will be a focus on downtown, an area they’ve identified as a crime hotspot.
He adds Dover PD is aware of the growing trend of “takeover” style parties, which can pose a public safety risk and patrols will monitor for those events as well- he says that the success of the police department this summer will rely on community engagement.
“We’re limited by our resources, and that’s well known. So, we can’t be everywhere. The citizens taking the time to report things that they see [if it’s] suspicious activity, and doing so in a timely manner, is key to our success." he said.
