The Rehoboth Beach, Lewes, and Delaware River and Bay Authority Police Accountability Committee will take a closer look at a May takeover event in Rehoboth at a meeting in September.
The event, on May 19, led to hundreds of young people turning out, multiple arrests, early business closures, and four men being charged with felonies, including conspiracy and incitement to riot. Those charges were later dropped.
At a special meeting, the accountability committee indicated it wanted to explore the event and the response, which saw several other police agencies joining Rehoboth Beach police officers to control the crowd. However, the committee won’t look into the issue until late September.
Committee Chair Dan Zachem counseled patience, saying that he wanted to let an independent investigation play out before the committee tackles the issue.
“So on the one hand, we are more well-informed and better informed, which at a minimum would make the process, I think, a little bit more efficient,” he said. “And it just may also be the prudent thing to do.”
Rehoboth Police Chief Keith Banks added that after the investigation is done, the public may have another chance to express their opinions beyond the public comment period at the accountability committee meeting.
“It is my understanding, the mayor and council will decide, but I believe that they're going to do a - when the investigation is done - open forum and have people come in.So this would be another opportunity,” he said.
Zachem also left open the possibility that, by waiting until September, some of the four men initially charged with felonies might want to speak to the committee as well. While the charges were dropped, Zachem said he wasn’t clear on the legal details, and waiting to let the process play out could protect the men’s rights.
“We're all in agreement that if someone would like to speak to us, that we're here to listen. That's what we want to do, and that's what we should do,” he said. “But I don't know, for example, whether the charges were dismissed with prejudice or without prejudice. And again, not to nerd out too much, if the charges were dismissed without prejudice, in theory, they can be re-brought by the state at any time and those young men would have an extant Fifth Amendment privilege.”
The response to the takeover joins a list of other issues targeted by committee members for further study, including how agencies respond to mental health crises, an update on gang-related activity in the area, and what departments’ policies are on publishing mug shots online. Committee Vice-Chair Mary Good also wants to look into why Delaware River and Bay Authority officers do not use tasers.
“You might have 800 people on the ferry, and the choice is, you're either physically trying to handle a situation, potentially, injuring yourself or a victim or a witness or a perpetrator, or you have the use of a firearm,” she said. “It does seem like, you know, some questions about whether or not tasers should be more broadly used.”
That topic and others might also be tackled at the next meeting, along with the discussion over the police response to the May takeover event. That meeting will on Tuesday, September 29 in Rehoboth Beach.
