Jon Offredo

The News Journal

Six police cadets could begin patrolling Loockerman Street in Dover as early as February, armed with Tasers and pepper spray to help keep the state capital's main shopping thoroughfare clear of loiterers, panhandlers, drunks and petty crime.

The plan has raised concern among civil rights activists who say arming part-time cadets – who officials say will undergo an intense interview process and several weeks training by Dover police – could lead to trouble.

City officials say the program is a good way to handle petty and nuisance crimes, freeing up officers to handle the more serious problems facing Delaware's capital. The city has seen a spate of violent crime in the last few months, including three shootings in as many days in early November and two homicides in two days in August.

"It's hard for me as the chief of police to allocate resources of police officers when I've got shootings, heroin, and ... all of these major crimes out there," said Dover chief Paul Bernat earlier this month. "To have somebody to walk up and down the street and go in the library like we're Mayberry, times have changed. It just isn't like that."

The presence of the cadets – who would have arrest powers, but no firearms – is in response to requests from the business community to have more police presence in Dover's downtown business district. The cadets would be part-time, working 19 hours a week at a rate of $12 an hour and would patrol in pairs.

Kathleen MacRae, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware, thinks cadets, who can be as young as 18, will not have the experience to deal with conflict in a high-traffic area that borders some of the most crime-riddled areas of the city.

"It is the height of irresponsibility for the Dover Police Department to propose that an 18-year-old be armed with a Taser and given arrest powers. A Taser is a weapon that has been responsible for hundreds of deaths in the United States according to Amnesty International," MacRae said in a written statement.

The United Nations has said that Taser stun guns are a form of torture that can kill, she added.

"The ACLU of Delaware is already suing the Dover Police because one of their officers used excessive force during an unjustified arrest and broke a man's jaw. It is likely that one of the reasons this occurred was lack of proper training," she said. "To even think that three to four weeks of training is sufficient to prepare cadets for the situations they will encounter on the streets is ludicrous. Arming cadets will make Dover streets and the citizens of Dover less safe, not more."

The city is embroiled in a lawsuit with the ACLU of Delaware, regarding alleged excessive force used in the 2013 arrest of Lateef Dickerson. A grand jury reviewed the claims earlier this year, but did not indict Cpl. Thomas Webster.

Erin Thwaites, owner of Bel Boutique on Loockerman Street, said business owners reached out to police because of the rising amount of loitering and people with open alcohol containers hanging out in front of their stores. Customers and her employees would be heckled and solicited by panhandlers on the way in, she said.

"We definitely didn't have any real crime issues, but it really just brings down the perception of downtown," she said. "We're not trying to complain, we're just the ones who are down here and live it and know it."

The presence of the cadets, Thwaites said, will make sure "that people know that it's not OK to behave like that in our city."

Candidates for the jobs would be subject to an intense interview process, several weeks of training and a detailed background check, Bernat said. They will also undergo a physical and psychological evaluation, he added. Police said they would also look for candidates studying criminal justice at local colleges.

"The Dover Police Department is confident in its hiring and training practices. The cadet program has been proven effective and successful when it was a part of the department many years ago and we have no reason to believe it will be anything less than that now," Dover police spokesman Cpl. Mark Hoffman said in a written statement Friday. "The program is similar to the use of seasonal officers by other municipalities in local resort towns where the use of those officers has proven effective in combating minor and nuisance crimes that currently affect our downtown districts."

Roy Sudler Jr., a member of the city's Legislative, Finance, and Administration Committee, said earlier this month that he's concerned that giving arrest powers, Tasers and pepper spray to cadets not old enough to drink, and with little experience, could be risky for a city that's had its own share of excessive force troubles.

"We're in different times," Sudler said. "I'm concerned about the cadets safety and the citizens' safety. If they are not that mature, especially in resolving conflict, then it could put the city of Dover at liability for a lawsuit and with us just losing $300,000, in a lawsuit I don't think the city can afford any future lawsuits such as that."

In May, the city paid out $300,000 to five high-ranking police officers in a settlement that stemmed from complaints that former Mayor Carleton Carey violated employment and affirmative action policies and abused his authority by influencing the appointment of a deputy police chief.

Nationally, tensions between police and the communities they protect have been at an all-time high after high-profile incidents in Ferguson, Cleveland and Staten Island.

The areas these cadets are going to patrol are certainly the city's busiest in terms of walking traffic, but they also border some of the city's crime-affected areas, like New, Kirkwood and Queen Streets, Sudler said.

The cadets will not patrol those areas, despite their proximity to the downtown area, officials said. The cadets are predominately for the businesses downtown, the libraries, and to maintain crowd control during parades and other events.

Cadets should patrol that area, especially with the crime rate in the area being so high, Sudler said. The intention is to make the downtown area safer for business owners and customers, he added.

"I would like to see them patrol the whole city, downtown Dover area, including areas that are perceived to be a problem area or a minority area," Sudler said. "I want to make sure the city is not being biased in the application of safety for the city."

Bernat said he has safety concerns about sending unarmed cadets into those areas, but "once they are seasoned, I have no problem with that," he said.

In the past Sudler said there's been a flavor of bias left in his mouth. He said he believes that things will change thanks to how the city forms its policies and includes all areas of the community.

"We now have all of the tools and knowledge to make the right decision for the city of Dover to make sure the city is dealing business in good faith for all residents, not just a select few," he said.

The program is also a good way to scout future talent for the city's police ranks, officials said.

"This is a good way to build an employment base," said council president, and former Dover officer, David Bonar during a Legislative, Finance, and Administration committee earlier this month. "It takes a special breed of person to want to become a police officer."

The cadet program was approved by the legislative committee earlier this month and the city council is scheduled to consider the proposal at their next meeting on January 12.

Contact Jon Offredo at (302) 678-4271, on Twitter @jonoffredo or at joffredo@delawareonline.com.