DOVER, Del. - As summer winds down, Dover Police say a targeted patrol initiative is showing promising early results in areas the department has identified as crime hotspots.
The department's Enhanced Visibility Patrols initiative began earlier this year, temporarily putting school resource officers on patrol while schools were out for the summer.
Rather than simply increasing patrols throughout the city, police used years of complaint data to identify areas and times where officers were most needed.
Dover Police Lt. Mark Hoffman said the department looked at patterns in criminal activity, including everything from loitering and shoplifting to violent crime.
"The enhanced visibility patrols were based off of data that we collected throughout this year, in the years prior, focusing on what we would call hotspots, for lack of better words," Hoffman said.
Officers were then deployed to those areas during peak days and times.
The department says some of those targeted areas have seen decreases in complaints since the initiative began.
Police say complaint calls at the Target location and the Wawa on Route 8 have each decreased by more than 20% compared with the average for this time of year.
Hoffman cautioned that it's too early to declare the program a success, with the initiative scheduled to continue through the end of August.
"It's a little early to tell. We still have another month or so of this to go, but right now we've seen some pretty good decreases in activity, especially in the areas like retail theft, shoplifting, loitering complaints," Hoffman said.
The goal, he said, is not simply enforcement but prevention.
"Our primary focus is prevention of crime, and visibility is step one and the biggest step in doing all of that," Hoffman said.
Downtown business owner and youth mentor Donnell Fears said he's noticed the increased police presence and believes engagement between officers and youth can make a difference.
"I've seen the patrol officers, they come by, they speak to my barbers, they even speak to the children," Fears said. "I seen them talking to the kids on bikes the other day."
Fears is also working to provide young people with positive alternatives through the Fears Boxing and Fitness Club. The facility is currently under construction and is expected to reopen later this fall.
He said programs like his can provide stability, values and hope for young people.
"With my program, the Fears Boxing Club program, I think it offers one stability, I think it offers values and it also teaches hope," Fears said.
The Enhanced Visibility Patrols are expected to wrap up as the new school year begins. Police say the department will continue using crime data to help determine where officers are needed most.
