DOVER, De. - Some photos that appear to depict two Dover police officers asleep in their squad cars are causing a stir in Dover.
The photos, shared on social media, have gotten a lot of attention, including from the police department. Dover Police have released a statement on the matter in question:
"The Dover Police Department is aware of a photo(s) circulating online that appear to show two of our officers asleep in their patrol vehicles on Monday night/Tuesday morning. We are actively investigating the circumstances surrounding this issue and the appropriate corrective action will occur in short order. The Dover Police Department Code of Conduct is modeled off of a national standard. That standard will be applied to this incident. The behavior is unacceptable to our agency, unfair to our citizens, and certainly outside of department policy."
The post has been shared hundreds of times, and has over 1.2 thousand comments.
We reached out to some members of city council about the situation. Councilman Ralph Taylor declined to comment as the investigation continues, but Councilman Bill Hare says he has complete confidence in the city department.
"I trust - I know there is an internal investigation. I have complete confidence in the command staff, they will investigate and deal with it. It does not effect anything the Dover police does. They are still one of the best departments in the state."
Some community members we spoke with agreed with councilman.
"Should they have been sleeping on the job? Of course not. But blowing it out of proportion doesn't help anybody. These guys have the toughest job on the planet by the way. Next to our military, police officers - I wouldn't want to be one, and I wouldn't want any of my children to be one either," explained Doug Ferris, who owns a business in Camden. "You know you have to think everything could possibly be taken out of context. Number one is we've all probably had those types of day on the job. The problem is it's a police officer, so as soon as the police officer is doing something wrong, as we know, to accentuate the problem, try to find what else they're doing wrong and make it a whole lot worse."
Others, while raising concerns, admit the long hours cannot be easy.
"I don't think it's very good. I don't know if it's a matter of the fact that they have more hours to put in, because they don't have as many officers as they need," said Bob Reese, a Dover resident. "It's a concern, but I think some of them went a little too far, they blew it out too far. Police have to do a job, and sometimes they gotta do more hours than they need to."
Dover Police are still dealing with the fallout on social media, and have not said what the potential punishment could be for the officers.
