WILMINGTON, DE – Attorney General Matt Denn announced today that he and leaders of the Wilmington Police Department will be holding a community meeting next week in the high-crime area where the city’s foot patrol project has been active for the past month. The purpose of the meeting is to give community residents an opportunity to provide feedback to law enforcement on how we can help keep Wilmington safe.
The meeting will occur on Monday, June 29th, from 6:30 – 7:45pm at Central Baptist Church, 839 N. Pine Street. This is the area where foot patrols have been active for the past month because of statistically high violent crime rates in prior months. It is also the home of East Side Rising, which unites community members with public & private stakeholders to form a collaborative for the purpose of revitalizing the Eastside of Wilmington, through housing improvements, workforce development, and economic empowerment.
The foot patrols are the result of a grant that the City of Wilmington and Attorney General Denn received from the state’s Neighborhood Building Blocks Fund. Under the grant, seven officers patrol high-crime areas of Wilmington on foot from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m., seven nights a week. To date, most of the overtime officers have been Wilmington Police Department officers.