Dewey Beach looking to hire more full-time police officers

DEWEY BEACH, Del. – The Town of Dewey Beach had its budget set on April 1st, but with staffing issues at the police department, town officials are now taking another look.

During the busy season at Dewey Beach, Town Manager Bill Zolper says they have not been able to get as many seasonal police officers that they have had in the past.

“We have been budgeting twenty for the last two and a half years since I have been here, and we have only been able to get anywhere between eleven to thirteen seasonal officers.”

Zolper says he wants residents to know that public safety is a number one concern, and that’s why Dewey Beach Police are pushing for more full-time officers.

“When you have that many people in town and you have an active day and nightlife, your police department response time goes down,” Zolper said. “You need enough officers to be able to cover and serve the public’s safety at the same time.”

“We have fifteen bars within a half mile area of Dewey Beach, during that time there are a lot of people out during this active nightlife,” Zopler said. “We need the officers out there to make sure everybody is protected and everybody is behaving properly.”

Town Officials say they do not want to overburden their police officers making them work seventy or eighty hours during the summer. Zolper told 47ABC that three full time officers for Dewey Beach would lighten the load.

“The chief has laid out really good reasons on why we need these three additional police officers,” Zolper said. “We have people that get sick, people that go away on training, families that have maternity leave and other things.”

“During that time period, we need those officers to fill into those spaces.”

Dewey Beach Commissioner Paul Bauer tells us the three new full time officers should not cost any additional money.

“We are trying to make this a revenue neutral proposition.”

Dewey Beach only has about 400 residents, according to the town census, but thousands of visitors and tourists come to visit every week.