Dover’s new police chief says one of his top priorities is actively and aggressively taking guns off the streets of Delaware’s capital city.
Dover’s Deputy Chief Marvin Mailey will will take over as active chief this week after serving nearly 25 years in the department.
Over the years he said he’s seen a rise in dangerous drugs, violent crime and illegal guns.
“I know when I started back in 1993 when we got a gun in a traffic stop it was a rarity. Now it’s commonplace. That means more people are armed -and it’s typically illegal- and that’s not good,” he said Tuesday in his first public appearance since city council members approved his nomination last week.
Mailey said all these crimes end with people losing their lives, which is why they’re his top priorities.
Details on how to turn the tide against illegal guns has yet to come, but Mailey's approach to getting dangerous drugs off the streets is by pursuing dealers instead of users.
Some of his key accomplishments with the the Dover PD revolve around drug abuse.
One is the implementation of the overdose-reversal drug naloxone and another is the city’s ANGEL initiative. That program allows drug users to turn themselves in and receive treatment instead of jail.
When Mailey is sworn in Wednesday afternoon he'll become the first African American to lead the city's police force.
He’s been deputy chief for the past three years and has been serving as interim chief since Paul Bernat retired in January.
He's originally from the Bronx, New York.
"One of the toughest cities in America," he said.
