What is that?
What's that?
» Yeah.
» Okay.
» Uh
» 59
» Welcome everyone. Um
Uh
I guess we'll start with our call to
order and uh and attendance and roll
call. Uh my name is Dan, Dan Zackem.
» Oh, Dan DeSimone.
» Present.
» Chris White
» Mary Good
» Andrew Glassman
» Kim Lacey
» Uh good afternoon everyone.
Um not aware of any announcements or
other news other than
uh our agenda items, but if anyone has
anything they'd like to raise at the
outset, feel free. Any announcements of
any kind?
No?
Um
if we could move on to just approval of
our agenda, I'll make a motion that the
agenda be approved.
» Second.
» All in favor?
» I
» The agenda is approved.
Uh we have two sets of minutes
um
both from our, I believe, April 26th
normal meeting and then our training
session uh
now at the ferry terminal.
Uh with regard to each, uh I'll make a
motion that the minutes for each uh be
approved.
» Motion to approve minutes.
» Yes.
» Okay.
» I second.
» All in favor?
» I
» They are um
our minutes are approved.
Um
before we get into business, I just
wanted
to
put a couple things on the record, if
me. First, I want to thank
uh
my fellow committee members for taking
time and fighting the traffic
uh to come on down for this for this
special meeting and take time out of
your schedule. And also a special thanks
to
uh our law enforcement members for This
is a busy time of year for you folks and
and we understand that your time is
valuable. So, thank you so much and
especially a special thanks to Chief
Banks and
uh Lieutenant Sweet and and all of your
staff for getting us the
uh the room and the logistics set up and
everything on pretty short notice. So,
we appreciate that.
I would also be remiss at the outset if
I didn't
uh mention that Reverend Eddie uh wanted
very much
uh to be here today.
Uh but, he had an unavoidable conflict
that took him to an out of out of town
meeting in Seaford. Um so, he won't be
with us today. Um
I just want to mention at the outset
that uh our primary purpose, at least uh
in this one person's view today,
uh is just to briefly assemble uh for a
short period of time uh to acknowledge
uh the May 19th takeover event in
Rehoboth and the fact that this
committee uh understands
uh that it is an event that the
community has a sincere interest in and
that there are uh individuals as well as
organizations
uh that are interested in that event and
law enforcement's response.
Um it has been gratifying uh to the
chair at least, and I'll share with my
uh fellow members if they're not aware,
um that there's already been a number of
face-to-face communications between
individuals and various groups and
citizens within uh the greater Rehoboth
community with with law enforcement and
specifically with the Rehoboth Police
Department and and Chief Banks and with
an already open
and direct avenue of communication
already existing between the community
and the law and law enforcement,
um,
it may which is of course a great thing
and a good thing and one of the reasons
that we all love the community that
we're in, um,
it may be unnecessary for this committee
to act as a proactive conduit for a
productive dialogue. And that's a good
thing.
Um, nevertheless, we wanted to say to
the community that we're here, we
understand that we may have a role with
regard to acting as a conduit for the
community to reach out to law
enforcement with any questions or
concerns that they may have with regard
to this particular event or any other
issue
that involves law enforcement in any of
our respective communities, whether it's
with Delaware River Bay Authority
police or the town of Lewis or here in
Rehoboth. Um, and we understand that we
do have a role in fostering a productive
dialogue between the community and law
enforcement. And, if appropriate, to
offer helpful suggestions
should
such events arise again in the future.
Um,
so having said that, um,
I would like to suggest and open
the floor to discussion with my fellow
committee members that we dedicate our
third quarter meeting,
specifically during the month of
September,
to a substantive discussion of the May
takeover event and law enforcement's
response.
I'll start off by respectfully
suggesting,
mid to late September for two important
reasons.
First, it may be
that persons who
were arrested would like to come and
speak to the committee and and provide
their views
on on the event. Um if we give the
criminal
justice process more time to work itself
out, it may be that uh potential Fifth
Amendment issues
um which might be an impediment to
someone coming and feeling free to speak
to us. It may be that those issues could
be resolved.
So if someone, for example, was arrested
and has a pending criminal case, uh it
may be that they would choose not to
to speak to us and make any public
statements and that because that could
potentially redound to their detriment.
Um so if we give
and the process, the criminal justice
process, more time to work out, um
perhaps we could remove that as an
impediment to folks being willing to
come speak to us.
Um secondly, I I
and again, in this one person's view, I
believe it would be appropriate to take
a little bit more time uh before having
a substantive dialogue about the event
to allow um Mr. Walton, Mr. Max Walton,
who is retained uh by the city to
conduct their conduct an independent
investigation of the event, to allow him
time to and his staff to complete their
investigation and to make their findings
public.
So on the one hand, we are more well
informed and better informed, um which
at a minimum would make the process, I
think, a little bit more efficient, and
it just may also be the prudent thing to
do, um to wait till we have more facts
at our disposal to inform any inquiries
that we might have and questions that we
would like to pose perhaps uh to law
enforcement with regard to their
response.
Um,
so, with those preliminary remarks out
of the way, uh, I would open the floor
at this point to my fellow committee
members for any views they might have
uh, and may wish to express with regard
to the subject of when should we
schedule,
uh, our next meeting generally
uh, and whether or not at that time we
should be discussing or devote time to
discussing the May 19th event.
And then of course there are other
issues that were raised uh, in the past.
I know both Chris and Mary and Kim have
raised uh, other issues that they'd like
to see placed on future agendas and
perhaps we could address those as well
and take care of all of that
administrative business here today.
Uh, so with that I will conclude my
remarks and open up the floor to my
fellow members for any remarks that they
care to make.
» Ladies first. Uh, I know my man
» Um, I I agree with everything you said
Dan and um,
would like us to have our next meeting
hopefully after the independent
investigation is complete so that we can
have
a report
a good discussion.
» Mr. Chairman, I concur as well.
I do think that it's a
I do think Mr. Chairman, I do concur as
well. I do think that this committee
serves multiple purposes and uh, I do
not see members of the public. So,
you're with the newspaper?
Yes. Recognizable.
But but the general and you represent
the public, absolutely do. But this
committee also serves as an opportunity
for I've seen people write into the Cape
Gazette expressing their opinions etc.
But this committee also serves a purpose
by allowing a forum to have those same
type of citizens come and address their
concerns or state their
positions or questions, and so on and so
forth. So, I think that that's a good
idea and that we do allow these other
processes
to go forward as well.
» I agree with both of what Kim and Dan
said. Um my only question was I thought
that all the charges had been dismissed.
» Well, it's interesting because
that's
our lack of knowledge,
right? Because
» I I only know this from the press
reports.
» I mean, that's that's part of it's part
of the problem is we don't know.
I I believe
that
the four felony charges
were dismissed. And And while I don't
want to be to nerd out on the law too
much, um
but one of the questions that I would
have before we have any substantive
discussions, assuming for the sake of
argument that any of these four young
men would like to speak to us,
um and we're open to it. And And I'm
sure we're all in agreement that if if
someone
uh 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.
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
rebrought by the state at any time. And
those young men would have an extant
Fifth Amendment privilege. Obviously,
they
They They can make their personal
choices in consultation with their
counsel, obviously.
But, I wouldn't want to see our
committee be a venue for young people
saying things that could come back to
hurt them later or be used against them.
Um, so it's a good it's a good point.
There are also other folks, if my
understanding is correct again just from
press reports,
that there were other arrests for
uh underage drinking, uh perhaps there
was a fight or some I don't know, but
there were other there were charges
other than
or in addition to the four prominent
felony charges. Um, so with regard to
any of those folks,
on the one hand, would we love to hear
their perspective if they wanted to
share it? Of course. Would we want them
to risk harming themselves in the
process?
I think not.
So, if we give more of this time to work
out and we can learn more, then we can
be more informed uh about how we proceed
in our questioning of anyone who appears
before us. But that's it's a great
question, Andrew, and it's something
that we need to learn.
Any Anything else on that particular
topic?
Um [clears throat]
Chief?
» I think uh
Speaking of talking about dates, we're
looking at September, if I heard you
correctly, maybe the latter. Um
keeping in mind Tuesdays I think worked
the best for everybody. So far we've
been doing it consistently.
Um the 2nd and 3rd we usually have state
meetings. Can I only say that if that's
the case, that would say the 22nd or the
29th
um day. And then I would look over at
Marco and see if any of those dates are
available here or if um Tom knows if if
the room's available in Lewis.
» We're on one of the fine DRBA vessels as
well. That's always a possibility.
[laughter]
» That's correct, too.
» There you go.
» But you got those dates works for
everyone.
» Okay.
» So, I heard both days are are really
available in here for 10:00. That's the
22nd and 29th. That's
last two
Tuesdays of the month of September.
If anybody has a preference.
» Any preferences among my colleagues?
I I'd suggest that we
go with the 29th just to make sure that
we've given it time.
» Great suggestion. It's a good point.
» Think holding it here, given the
majority of the topic will be about
[clears throat] the takeover.
It might lend itself to more community
members.
» Also a good point.
» Coming and commenting.
» So, Tuesday, September 29th, 10:00 a.m.
here.
» Correct. And I'll work with you, Mr.
Chairman, to get the agenda put together
and make sure that the city of Rehoboth
Beach gets that posted and put out to
everyone as it gets closer.
» Great. Now, I
So, just so we play by the rules, I
suppose make a formal motion that we
hold our next
quarterly meeting on Tuesday, September
29th at 10:00 a.m. here in Rehoboth.
Second it. Second. Favor say I.
» I.
» Okay.
Um
Should we
um
My notes reflect that
there were other issues. Should we also
include on the agenda Chris, for
example, last time we were here
uh raised the issue of fraud and senior
citizen victims.
Kim had raised uh wanting to have some
discussion about mental health crisis
responses and gang activity.
Um
Mary
» I have two two topics.
» Had had two different topics.
» Yes.
» I I On the one hand, um I'll I'll
take judgment from you folks. On one
hand, I don't want to overload it if got
one big topic we want to deal with, but
also
how do you think
we should handle that with regard to our
other issues?
» I mean, it seems to me we need to see
how this plays out in terms of the
timing with the report from the
independent counsel completing that and
being ready for that timing. So, one
thought would be we could list out the
top the other topics, prioritize them.
If the takeover topic can be discussed,
then we put that first cuz I think it is
on people's minds and and then based on
the list of priorities, we can time out
what else we have room for or what may
be more urgent. And then the the other
topics
still important, we could push to the
next meeting potentially.
» Fair enough. We get We get to what we
can get to. We start with the takeover
incident. However much time that takes,
get to as much else as we can. If not,
we push it to our
our next regularly scheduled meeting.
Does that make sense?
» Yeah, and as far as my topic is with uh
fraud with the seniors, um
I am working with the University of
Delaware Osher Lifelong Learning
Institute, and then we have a class that
is scheduled in September and October.
It's five sessions from 2:30 to 3:45 in
Lewis.
Um so, Lieutenant Locklear and then Dan
have um graciously um agreed to
volunteer to present at um two of those.
I'm going to be a presenter as well as
the um Better Business Bureau of
Delaware and then possibly AARP. So, I
don't think it's a topic we necessarily
need to discuss here. I was just
bringing it up something I was um
working on.
» That Well, that's that sounds great.
Talk about that. An issue that needs to
be addressed, so thanks for doing that,
Chris. Get that organized.
» Should I
just briefly mention two topics so
everyone's aware?
So, um
the first one came from a citizen who
was concerned about um
jurisdictions publishing via the
newspaper and social media mugshots of
arrestees, in particular juveniles, and
I I don't have any specifics as to
whether that's
uh a common practice or whether that's
not done, but I think it would be useful
for us to hear about the approach the
different jurisdictions take towards
that, the policies and procedures that
govern it, and what happens after that
case is adjudicated, in particular if
the person is not found guilty, that
material is still out in the public
domain. So, that's um my first question,
and it did come from a citizen of
Rehoboth Beach.
The second one came from uh my
ride-along that I did with Lieutenant
Lamore, which was extremely informative.
Uh we spent 6 hours together, um
and I learned through that visit and
tour
uh about a little bit more about the use
of tasers, and I know you participated
with the the training on tasers, which I
was unable to do.
Um I also learned that I believe the
city of Rehoboth and the city of Lewis
do use tasers as part of their protocol,
but um the Delaware um
uh River and Bay Authority does not have
tasers for some jurisdictional reasons,
and so,
uh you know, when we were talking about
this with respect to, you might have 800
people on the ferry, and the choice is
you're either physically trying to
handle a situation, potentially
you know, injuring yourself or a um a
victim or a witness or a perpetrator
or you have the use of a firearm
it does seem like you know some
questions about whether or not tasers
should be more broadly used. So my my
reasoning in bringing this up is just to
help educate our committee about how the
use of tasers works and maybe the pros
and cons of of that in terms of an
alternative to the use of deadly force.
» That's a great issue. Mayor and I spoke
offline about that briefly and it is
something that's worthy of of discussion
and and something that we
would benefit from educating ourselves
on that. So
if we get to it
that's something that we can we can talk
about.
» Yes Mr. Chairman I would add since that
topic comes up has come up
depend on our time frame and so when we
get to that maybe we can have a bigger
topic just on use of force in general to
how we sit there and
what tools are on our tool belt per se
and what we use for different
jurisdictions and
and reasons behind it. Most our
departments have people use of force I
want to say I'll call them specialists
there's you know they teach firearms
training or they teach taser training or
baton or or hands on handcuffing things
like that so we can think 21 our
departments we have some specialties
that we can talk about that more detail
or whatever. I think that's always
important and I think it's certainly
something this committee should be
talking about that's what the public's
interested in use of force and as we
move forward so I think it's certainly
appropriate and think um
that may almost be a day in it by itself
if we had different people talking about
use of force in their
the different tools that we have.
» Well, thanks, Chief.
Um
So, I just to
uh to conclude on on that topic, um
again, I I just wanted to reiterate I
was I was gratified to hear, and I'm
sure my fellow committee members are
gratified to hear that there has been
uh
an open line of communication
uh between law enforcement and members
of the community and different groups
within the greater Rehoboth community.
Um but if we can add to that, if we can
help play a role uh in facilitating um
community involvement, uh that's what
we're here to do, and
uh we're willing and able and anxious to
listen, and if appropriate, pass on
suggestions that uh may come from
different community members in terms of
of how we may handle ourselves uh should
si- similar situations arise in the
future.
So, with that, I thank everyone.
Um
Yes, sir.
» If I may not to belittle the same topic,
but um here in Rehoboth Beach is has
been uh mentioned that um the city has
retained outside counsel to be looking
into this investigation. It is my
understanding, again, the mayor and
council or will decide, I guess, if they
want to, but I believe
that they'll they're going to do a
when this the investigation's done, open
forum to anyway and have people come in,
so this would be another opportunity.
So, um
which I think is great or whatever. Um
so, it may have already be out there and
discussed ahead of time, but obviously
there's several different approaches
maybe
» I'm sorry. So, you were saying that when
the
When the report's done
» My understanding is the city may elect
to decide to have a open house or a
community forum or something, too. So,
Um so,
the That's why it's good have maybe some
other topics ready there so we you guys
obviously can hear it again hear again,
depending on how the conclusion of the
um investigation goes. I will just echo
um as um the chairperson said, is I have
um
been reaching out and speaking with some
different community members, some
outside citizens, some residents, just
talking to them one-on-one. Um not not
many. And then
a couple local groups have reached out
out and so I met with two of them. I
think there was a total five of us got
together last Thursday and spoke and it
was productive or whatever. And still
not substantive cuz we still waiting for
an investigation and all, but I'm
certainly have that dialogue and all
with beach since this is where it
occurred. Is I'm very fortunate. I have
a lot of different community members and
organizations such as Camp and Main
Street, Chamber of Commerce and all. And
I meet with them monthly.
So at the same time we broke talked
about it and all. And all of them have
concerns rightly so and and they're
board members that they want to report
back to. So they'll be coming, you know,
in
ready to hear what's going to be
concluded or whatever, but everybody's
been very um
forthright and very professional. All
organizations say, "How can we help?"
You know, we know there's investigation.
Help out with training or anything like
that. So
I do want to say publicly thank you to
our community members and and for for
the support without taking sides. It's
just hey, let's wait for the the facts
to come out. So that's that's been
really good and I think that goes to
show a lot about this packs what why we
have this and why we have law
enforcement we get together with our
community members. So
we can have those um
partnerships already. So we sit there
and have that open line of communication
or whatever. But yes, everybody's
waiting for the facts just like this. So
are we. And you know, I'm sure though um
that will come out and there'll be some
things that we can
learn from that as every
case anytime how we we improve on on it
and
work with our community. So, we're
certainly looking forward to that, but
yes,
Decker, what you said, we are reaching
out as much as possible. I'm kind of
limited on what I can um
as far as the investigation stuff, I can
say um on Thursday and this past Monday
um majority of my
um officers that were being interviewed
have been interviewed. I'm not sure
which else is how many more if any more
are on the list or not. Uh but I know um
the ones I saw and I know
um
meeting with the attorneys to further
investigation, so it is moving along.
» Right.
Thanks, Chief, for that update.
Appreciate it. Um
at this time open the floor to public
comment, but seeing that there are
no members of the public present.
Um
» Mr. Chairman, just two items before we
» Yes, sir. Yes, sir, Dan.
» Um Lieutenant, I read in the newspaper
that you have a new addition to your
staff the of the four-legged nature that
is
assigned to Cape May.
» That is correct.
» [clears throat]
» K9 Joker is his name.
» Got you. Congratulations on that front.
» Thank you.
» And also to our law enforcement
leadership, fellow members, Mr.
Chairman, if I'm not mistaken, it was
June 1 year ago that we first met.
So, I don't see a cake, but hey, you
know what? Congratulations
» [laughter]
» 1 year in the books and thank you for
having the confidence in all of us to be
on the committee.
» My pleasure.
» Thank you for stepping up and
volunteering.
» Well, if he really stepped up, he would
have brought the cake.
» That's true.
» [laughter]
» Um Mr. Chair, I'm wondering, too, if we
can talk briefly about Mary's survey and
the work that's being done there as it
relates to potential new members.
» Sure.
» And the other thing is I think
we're starting the clock on some
continued training. Is that right for
this coming year?
Do we have more training?
» I I'd have to read that. I don't think
we have to is the your first year you
had to have 20 hours now. I certainly
think we should always be learning and I
will always open up any training we have
on like when we come back to taser again
on for that and our seasonal training
and things like that. So um
and I would encourage the board if you
have a topic of some training or
whatever to let us know. We might even
have instructors
to be able to sit down and talk about
it, you know, could we have detectives
um
when we talk about fraud or seniors or
people we can sit up
people to come in here, AG's office um
FBI protection details, what whatever. I
think it's whatever this committee
wants, but we certainly
can do additional training.
» I would welcome, you know, emails or
whatever about any upcoming trainings or
um education that would help us as a
board.
» It's interesting cuz I I tried to
research whether there was any ongoing
requirement. It doesn't appear that
there is anything
listed. It's silent on that, but I would
concur with your recommendation that we
need to continuously
be keeping ourselves educated and I
think just learning helps us to be
better able to serve the community.
» In that regard maybe the discussion of
use of force would be better off as a
training session rather than a
using the minutes of a regular meeting.
It's a suggestion.
Perhaps
» Yeah, I think we certainly can do do
that and use as training hours even at
one of the regular meetings and um one
of us
would talk offline and um bring in
different people from our department and
our person in charge of taser and other
one can talk about overview of policies
and procedures we use it for us. Um
maybe have our one of our firearms
instructors to sit there and talk about
about that and what the requirements are
and all and um so yeah.
Yeah, so I think you could take a full
90 to hours up on that and use it as
training during one of our meetings.
» Okay.
» Yeah, I like the idea of doing it doing
it during a meeting because then the
public gets to hear
about the policies and procedures and
about the training that the officers
undergo and I think that would be of
benefit to the community.
» And and hopefully as we get this going
we'll have more community members um
come forward to these meetings and be
able to ask questions at the time while
we're all there.
» Okay.
» Sounds good.
Um Mary, if you want to take a moment to
» Sure.
» Discuss the
» Sure, so
» What you've been trying to do for us.
» So at our last meeting just to bring
everybody back to that we had an
applicant. We made the decision to put
on hold um
bringing anyone new onto the committee
until we were able to really assess
our own makeup with respect to are we
representative of the constituencies
that we serve.
So with our chair's help we have
developed a very brief
survey for each of our committee members
» [clears throat]
» That is intended to just better
understand their experiences and
perspectives. It's an anonymous survey.
Uh there's no attribution of names. Uh
in fact it's simply a check the box. So
people won't be writing in any comments.
Um I will then take those results,
summarize those results
and at a future meeting when
appropriate, share that with
the committee and our officers and the
public so that we're better informed as
to as candidates present themselves,
what gaps we may have currently on the
committee and where we might be looking
to try to augment our own experiences
with other members of the community that
may bring unique perspectives.
» Great. Thank Thank you, Mary. Thank And
thanks for taking on the responsibility
of doing that.
Um
Okay. Um
Again, open the floor again to public
comment.
Hearing none, I'd make a motion to
adjourn.
» Before we adjourn, looks like we have
some folks that just showed up. Do they
have anything they'd like to engage on?
» Um
I Yeah. Coast City News. Hi.
» Okay.
» I have one one more thing. Um
Could we just get a little update or
whatever on the summer officers?
And how that's working for you?
» Thank you for for that, Andrew. Um
to to my from my perspective,
we they're doing a really good job. Um
so
we had four four returnees.
And um
you know, so with so many younger ones,
some first year, they're a little bit
hesitant. So we're out there they're
doing some ride-along with full-time
officers and walking with full-time
officers, but they're doing a nice job.
Um I've had no complaints. Um when I
speak with them one-on-one, they love
it.
And uh they really thought the training
went well. And uh and um quite honestly,
um I've seen them to be more um engaging
this year with the public. I have
received um letters already and emails
um about their engagement and um being
out front and being seen. So, that's
always positive early on because
sometimes it takes a a month or two
you know, for them to feel comfortable
in the uniform that they're wearing per
se. They
but so far it's been very positive.
Our summer overall is
been steady but nothing major. Um,
Mark, anything you want to add with
summer officers?
» I don't think so. I mean, I would I
would I think when we started I was
speaking with Kim that they seem to be a
lot more proactive this year than they
have in past years, which is good. It's
nice to see them go out and actually do
something.
» Yeah, and I think that gets goes back to
the training that we changed it up this
year and they had more time on scenario
based
and using the radio and get
body camera and things like that to just
get more comfortable with their tools
and with their selves in uniform. So,
like I said, I think that's been a big
help help
spend additional hours and more training
on us and this year we
as many of you may know,
we actually put in two TAC officers. So,
they're with them all four weeks and
also it's very consistent with those
individuals. So, they feel more
comfortable with them sharing things
because not only do we talk about
what their jobs are and functions out
there, we talk about their health and
wellness. So, we've got those components
in there too. So, I think they feel more
comfortable even with us to to go out
there and in turn hopefully that
reflects out to our public.
» Chief, free question.
» I'd like to add that as I take my walks
on the boardwalk, I've met I would say
four seasonal officers
and I try to engage them and let them
know I'm on the committee and ask them,
you know, is this your first year? Do
you want a career in law enforcement?
Get to know them for, you know, two
three minutes and they've been very
professional, very engaging and they all
seem very happy to be here. So, I would
encourage you to do the same and you get
some exercise as well.
» It's it's actually I would agree with
you. I've been trying to do the same and
it's really encouraging to see how many
members of the community are approaching
them just to have a chat, you know, they
they do seem more engaged this year. So,
kudos. If that was part of the training,
that's really helping them to do better
outreach. That's seems to really be
working.
» It is but at the same time we're very
fortunate. It's
it's been a turnaround the last year and
a half with off more officers applying
for full-time and seasonal employment.
So, you have more opportunity to do more
interviews, testing and look for those
individuals cuz as we know at the beach
resorts and and with the ferry terminal,
it is about
the public serving. It's about
communication and so
that's what we need out of our officers
to be ambassadors and that's what we sit
down and teach them a lot as some of you
said in the training and you would hear
that from the mayor, commissioners and
myself when I'm addressing them.
» Thank you, Chief. And Mary thankfully
pointed out that I was skipping over
one item agenda
one agenda item, excuse me.
If there was any additional reports or
anything from
from our law enforcement members.
Lieutenant Lamore, is there any
» No.
» We'll go down the line.
» None.
» Not this time.
» [clears throat]
» Next time I'll probably have a list of
different events that we've had
» Right.
» Up until September that I can report on.
» Right. Thank you.
» We had we did have the World Cup watch
party at the ferry. I can report on
that. There was I think over a thousand
people showed up.
» Really?
» Yeah.
» Yeah, I was going to do a kudos on that
because I attended and it was the police
presence was wonderful, the city of
Lewis, and the Delaware River Bay
Authority.
And [clears throat]
it was really nice to see families and
kids
all convening and
cheering on a team.
» Yeah.
» Nice nice community event.
» They were expecting around 500 and a bit
more than double. So.
It was a lot.
But it went well.
» Great. Chief?
» The only upcoming thing for Lewis uh our
June 10th celebration is this Saturday
1:00 to 5:00 in Blockhouse Pond.
And that's it.
» Thanks.
» I was just going to mention the summer
races which we've already talked about
out so that has going well and of course
we're having a big event coming up the
5th of July for our fireworks and
celebration in 250 years. So it's going
to be an extended fireworks. So we're
expecting big crowds and hoping for
great weather and I just had So we're
setting that up or have law enforcement
agencies come in and help us out. The
big lift is from the Delaware State
Police and their special unit so they'll
all be in place as well as live other
local municipalities and in turn will
help them out with their events back and
forth throughout the state up and down
the state A for that. So it's a
definitely a group effort. Just spoke
with the lifeguards this morning. We'll
have lifeguards on the beach as we do
every year too.
And for anything that happens extended
hours so they'll they won't be guarding
but they'll be helping us with the
fireworks and crowd control and things
like that on the beach and till it's
over.
» Right. Thanks, Chief.
» And one of Sorry, Lieutenant.
» Sorry, I do have two more things since
we won't be back till September. Um
so grain concert series they call it
rocking the docks. It's every Friday
throughout the summer. So I think
there's like
18 concerts
on the ferry green.
And it's they get anywhere from 3 to 700
people.
» Wow.
» Depending on who's what
who's playing in the concert.
And then we also have Rock the Boat
concerts, and that's every Thursday
through the summer.
» Fireworks.
» And the fireworks, July 2nd, 3rd, and
4th events.
» Wow.
» Obviously, if they're plugging their
fireworks, uh
» [laughter]
» Lewes has quite a show on July 4th
itself at dusk on
on Lewes Beach. So.
» And sure as well, this body won't meet
till September.
Uh
» [clears throat]
» I see on the calendar that August 4th is
listed as the National Night Out for law
enforcement.
» Yep.
» Could one of you maybe briefly explain
for folks that may or may not know what
that is, and do each of your agencies
participate in that?
» Sure, uh National Night Out is a is a
just that. It's a National Night Out
where
municipal law enforcement agencies get
to connect with their communities. Uh
Lewes, we do it on August 4th uh every
year.
» First Tuesday of the month, I think. Uh
of August. And uh it's just it's a good
event. We cook uh for our community. We
have a band. We have uh
probably 30 different vendors there
providing uh
you know, free things from, you know,
blood pressure screening to uh
information about uh
different services in the state uh that
people can take advantage of. So, it's a
really nice event for Lewes. It's a
Blockhouse Pond. Uh
5:00 to 8:00
on August 4th.
» In Rehoboth, we unfortunately do not. I
tried early on to have that, and we just
the community most of it was rental
property at the time. Um and we just
didn't get the buy-in from community.
So, it was a lot of just visitors or
whatever, um which is great, but um we
had so many other events going on at
same time with bandstand concerts and
and all of that. It was just kind of
adding to some of the chaos and really
wasn't taking the time to get our
message out. So, people were coming out,
maybe grabbing some free food or and
all, which is fine in the product, but
they really weren't engaging law
enforcement where we really want to give
back to. So, we've been trying to other
smaller events during fall months and
springs, things like that with our
community. And all and being involved in
like Camp Rehoboth block parties and
things like that, trying to get
involved. That being said, we do
recognize the importance of it. So, we
send officers each year to Lewes, to
Milton, other departments that are
having that and help out and things down
to Ocean View and Bethany, like we'll
help out at different events.
» Great.
Thanks, gentlemen.
Uh again, open the floor
uh to public comment.
Seeing no one present,
I'll make a motion to adjourn.
» Second.
» All in favor?
» I.
» Thank you all. Thanks, everyone for
coming.
» Thank you.
» Thank you all.
» Mhm.