NEW CASTLE COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT

AN INFORMAL HISTORY

 

Patrol Division

 

The heart of the New Castle County Police is the Patrol Division.  Once a recruit graduates from the police academy, he/she is assigned to Patrol. When an officer has several years of patrol experience, he/she can be considered for a transfer to a specialized unit.  The officer will remain in the specialized unit as long as they are productive or get promoted.  Once an officer is promoted to Sergeant or Lieutenant, he/she returns to Patrol.  A sergeant is a first line supervisor with 5 to 10 officers under his/her supervision.  A lieutenant is a first line manager responsible for 25 to 45 personnel, both officers and sergeants.  Excluding Monday thru Friday day work, the Patrol Lieutenant is the top ranking officer working New Castle County.   When a lieutenant is promoted to Captain, a Staff position, he/her sees the Department in a different light.  As upper management, they not only worry about day to day operations of their Unit, but they have to start thinking about short and long term personnel goals.

 

 

 

Some interesting facts about Patrol:

The suspect was eventually identified as the Senate Pro Tempore of Delaware.  The next day the Senator blasted the Department in the media and stated he was going to abolish the County Police and Ptl. Williamson would lose his badge.  The Senator initiated Bill 252 which passed eliminating the powers of the County Police to investigate serious crimes.  The Department with the help of the Attorney General fought the bill and eventually a jurisdiction agreement was passed, overturning Bill 252.

 During the Magistrate Court trial for the Senator, Ptl. Larson stated he stopped the car for speeding and being suspicious.  The defense attorney argued that, once suspicious was a criteria for the stop, two hour detention questions should have been asked.  Since the criteria were not followed, the Magistrate dismissed all the charges against the Senator.

 The Senator involved lost his bid for reelection.  The person who beat him was the wife of a State Trooper who campaigned that politicians were not above the law.  In the 90’s, the former Senator admitted to one of the officers that his actions that night was the biggest mistake he ever made.  The Assistant Attorney General, who prosecuted the case, was fairly new attorney by the name of Pete Letang.  He went on to have an outstanding career as a Prosecutor and Defense Attorney.  Unfortunately we lost him to cancer in 2012.  Ptl. Larson retired from NCCPD in the 90’s and we also lost him to cancer.  Ptl. Jones retired after 20 plus years and now lives in Florida.  Ptl. Williamson never lost his badge and had a very successful career retiring in 2001 with the rank of Captain. 

Bill 252 removed NCCPD’s authority to investigate Class A felonies.  After a departmental shooting, the Attorney General, Dick Weir, swore in Det. George Freebery and Det. Felex Poppiti as State Detectives to investigate a Departmental use of force shooting. 

 

 

 

Special Units

 

The Specialized Units of New Castle County Police are the units that support Patrol.  Here is some trivia about the units.

 

SWAT

 

Ptl. Scott Phillips

Ptl. Mike Rogers

Ptl. Pete Kotowski

Ptl. Booker Johnson

 Ptl. Naftali Villanueva

Ptl. Larry Larson.  

 

Crime Analysis Unit

 

 

Community Service Unit

 

 

Mounted Unit

 

One of the Department’s most prestigious units is the Mounted Unit.  After much controversy over funding, the Mounted Unit was started in 1981.  The Department’s Mounted Unit received training from the Wilmington Police Mounted Unit, which was disbanded three years later.  NCCPD original Mounted Unit was Sgt. Jim Sharkey, Ptl. Francis Swift, Ptl. James Weston, Ptl. Gerry Conwary, Ptl. Ralph Dangello, and Ptl. Naftali Villanueva.  People assumed that the Mounted Unit is strictly for parades and crowd control, but the Mounted regularly works Patrol doing traffic enforcement.  Officers who have won National Mounted competitions:

1990 Cpl. Clarke-Uniform                     2001 Officer Davis-Uniform

1993 Officer Setting-Uniform               2003 Officer Hoff-Uniform

1998 Officer Davis-Uniform                  2004 Officer Brown-Uniform

1999 Officer Shriner-Equitation           2005 Cpl. Hill-Uniform

1999 Officer Purse-Uniform                  2012 Officer Baerga-Uniform

 

 

Goon Squad

 

Presently the Department addresses hot spots of criminal activity with a Jump Squad.  In 1978 the Department addressed the same problem with the GOON Squad.  The original squad was very affective in dealing with repeat criminal activity in communities.  The original members of the GOON Squad were Ptl. Dave Stewart, Ptl. Larry Larson, Ptl. Terry Lake, and Ptl. Gary Overstreet.

 

K9

 

In 1986 New Castle County Police trained the first officer with a canine partner.   The officer was Ptl. Stan Downward and his partner was a Bloodhound named Jesse.  Now the Department has a canine officer assigned to every squad.  Canines are used regularly to find missing persons, fleeing suspects, and illegal drugs.  

 

Walking Patrol

 

During the late 80’s the Department put walking patrols in high crime areas.   The first walking patrol was in Brookmont Farms.  Four of the original officers were Off. Charles Parker,  Off. Joe Berg,  Off. Tom Darby and  Off. Phil Davis.  The walking patrols were called Zebra Units.  The success of the Zebra patrol led to the DOORS patrol.  The acronym was for Dunleith, Overview Gardens, Oakmont, Rosegate and Simond Gardens walking patrol.

 

Traffic Services

 

When a citizen complains about a continuing traffic issue the Traffic Services Unit does specialized enforcement to correct the problem.   Also, the Traffic Services Unit investigates all fatal accidents.  The original Traffic Unit was started in the early 1970’s and was called the Selective Enforcement Unit.  The first Sergeant was John McCarnan.  The Unit had two sections: ASAP (Alcohol Safety Action Project).   Ptl. Gula and Ptl. Miller worked DUI enforcement five days a week from 1900-0300 (BAC then was .15).  The second was traffic enforcement. Ptl. Derrick and Ptl. Bill Gallagher did traffic enforcement and were primary officers for any fatal accidents. 

 

 

 

Criminal Investigative Unit

 

Many would say that the glory in police work comes from working in the Criminal Investigative Unit.  The Criminal Investigative Unit has had the following specialized units: Major Crimes, Persons Crimes, Property Crimes, Drug Unit, Family Services, and Evidence Detection Unit.