The Town of Dewey Beach is in the process of hiring a police consultant.
The resort has been looking into hiring a police consultant since 2017 when Dale Cooke was mayor.
Current mayor T.J. Redefer says the town agreed then to spend $25,000 to hire Dr. Gregory Warren, a 22-year veteran of the Delaware State Police.
“To come in and review procedures and make sure that we were doing things as we should. And that never got done. So the money has sat in our general account for some time. And when I did get elected in September of 2017 we agreed to do it again,” Redefer said.
Redefer says hiring a police consultant wound up being delayed because Dewey Beach was in the process of signing a mutual separation agreement with then Town Manager Marc Appelbaum and hiring someone else to fill the position.
Scott Koenig was hired as the new town manager in February 2018.
Redefer says at this week’s Commissioners' meeting, town commissioners finally voted to let Koenig hire Dr. Warren to examine the police department.
Redefer notes the consultant’s job is basically to make sure the Dewey’s police department is doing everything right:
“And that our police department has the tools they need. One of the fears with bringing in a police consultant like this, is a Town like Dewey Beach can only afford to do so much in our police department. So, one of the fears is that this consultant will come in and say we need to spend another $1 million in law enforcement,” Redefer said.
Redefer says if Dewey accepts Dr. Warren’s proposal as originally submitted, he should be on the job some time in February.
