Our Town Revisited: Dewey Beach Police Department
DEWEY BEACH, Del. – It’s time for our flash back to the past as we look at how the Dewey Beach Police Department made their rounds by bike or foot as they patrol the town. Former Anchor and reporter Kelly Rouse had a chance to visit the police offices at the beach and had this to say.
Summer of 1999
It’s been a hot summer, and Dewey Beach, as usual, is packed with people making the most of the Atlantic Ocean and all the great shops and restaurants in town. When the town’s population swells during the summer the police force brings in extra help.
Officer Young is just one of the 32 summer officers this year to work the beach. “I’m on foot patrol. We take care of a lot of parking during the day for local residents, especially people blocking their driveways and things like that.”
Office Friedenreich said, “Sometimes it’s tough. Sometimes the people don’t really understand the job I think and when they get a parking ticket and don’t like it.” For the most part, these officers all agree that the people are great at the beach, and they get to know and be known by just about everybody.
These officers, like Dellose, work from may until after Labor Day, when most of them go back to school. “I like the action really, it’s really busy. I get to see a lot. I get to do a lot. You work with great people here. You really get great experience here and I have a lot of stories to go back home with.”
Summer of 2025
Well over the past 25 years a lot has changed, however, the building has stayed the same, and the officers are still committed to serving the community.
Duty. Honor. Community.
The motto the Dewey Police Department has had since its founding in 1981. Over the past 25 years, the building hasn’t changed so much, but technology and leadership has according to Lieutenant Clifford Dempsey.
“I love the excitement of the summer, I love to see people come here and enjoy themselves. And I also like to be here when things go wrong, and we can give back to our visitors you know that give us so much.”
“We’ve also integrated our town surveillance cameras throughout the town, all up and down route 1 and several other strategic areas… Chief Speake is the first female police chief that we’ve had in Dewey Beach, she is the 4th police chief I’ve worked with since I’ve been here over the past 25 years. and with her she’s brought a lot of technology upgrades.”
Protecting People
Lieutenant Dempsey got his start protecting parks, now, it’s people!! “I started in the department of natural resources as a park patrol officer at the inlet back in 1998. Did that for a couple of years then I came her in the year 2000.”
Patrolling on the Beach can come with its challenges but the way they get around has upgraded since the late 90s. “Seasonal’s back then were on foot, on bikes, even back then we had a 4×4 that would go on the beach. These days, most of our seasonals are on some sort of mechanical vehicle- a bicycle, a UTV, which can drive out on the beach, and they patrol on that. and then summer on foot. They also drive our prisoner transport van.”
Seasonal Staff
The staff fluctuates with the seasons and the citizens. “Back in the late 90s early 2000s up to 40 seasonal’s, we have reduced that amount to under 20 now. Which is great because we’ve also supplemented our staff with more full-time police officers. Back then, I think we had 8 police officers when I started here, and now we’re up to 13.”
He goes on to say, “In a matter of one weekend our population can change from a couple 100 that live here all year excess of 25,000. Labor Day, Memorial Day weekend, we sometimes can reach up to 30,000 visitors in this town.”25 years ago, officers had to do things like patrol the beach and work with code enforcement, but expansion has made it easier for his officers. “And yes, we do issue some parking citations, but we leave that up to the parking. Early on, we did not have that, that was brought in back in the mid 2000s and it’s helped us tremendously.”
Officers and elected officials often work side by side- something he says has been difficult in times past. “With that revolving door of commissioners that we had in the past, it was always hard to get things done. Here recently it feels like if we set our minds on something, we’re going to get it done collectively and it’s going to be great in the end.”
Department Destination
Looking ahead, Lieutenant Dempsey shares the Dewey Department’s future destination! “We are in the process right now of constructing a new town hall and police department, which is going to go next door. When that’s complete were going to move into that building. Very, very sophisticated facility that were getting.”
Until then, they are using the space they have to serve their community. That new facility is said to be built within the next 2 years which will include an EMS department. They say they’re happy to serve the community from any location. For more information visit their website.
