GEORGETOWN, Del. — Two memorials honoring fallen Georgetown police officers were reinstalled Tuesday in The Circle in Georgetown after they were damaged in separate car crashes.
The memorials honor Chief Harvey Gregg Jr. and Patrolman Chad Spicer. Spicer's memorial was damaged in November 2023, and Gregg Jr. 's was damaged in July 2024. Gregg Jr.'s plaque was restored from the original, while Spicer's memorial is brand new.
Gregg died from a heart attack and head injury while directing traffic for a funeral procession on The Circle. He fell and hit his head on his patrol car door, adding to his injuries. He died two days later on April 4, 1998 from the heart attack and head injury.
Spicer, 29, was fatally shot on Sept. 1, 2009, while attempting to stop a vehicle involved in a shooting.
The officers’ memorials are now strategically placed deeper into the circle and farther off the road in an effort to protect them from future crashes.
Georgetown Town Manager Gene Dvornick said the placement of the new memorials was recommended by the Circle Advisory Committee, which was formed shortly after there was extensive damage to both monuments.
Lt. Joel Diaz, deputy chief of the Georgetown Police Department, said the circle is where Gregg Jr and Spicer's sacrifices and service should be memorialized.
“This is where they belong,” Diaz said. “This is where we want to keep them. This is a reminder of the ultimate sacrifice. But this is also a way of keeping their memories alive for a long time. We want everybody for years to come when they are on the circle that they read these stories, that they look at the names, get on social media, get on the internet, research it. And I think that's how you maintain their memory and legacy.”
Police Chief Ralph Holm said the return of the memorials also sends a message to the department's current officers.
"For our officers, to know that, you know, you're out there doing this job,” Holm said. “And if something, God forbid, should happen, that we're not going to let your name die in vain. We are going to continue to remember we are going to do things so that the community doesn't forget.”
Spicer's mother, Ruth Ann, looks at her son's new memorial.
Spicer's mother, Ruth Ann, said having her son's memorial back at the center of town gives her family a place to always visit him.
"It just means so much to have him here and that we can come up to the circle and sit with him just to be with him. And people can read what's on the sides of the monument, and enjoy what a wonderful person he was," Ruth Ann said.
The Georgetown Police Department is hosting a wreath-laying ceremony at the new monuments in the Georgetown Circle on Sept. 1.
