Project Safe Neighborhood 2023 Dover

Violent crimes have been steadily increasing in Dover, Delaware despite ongoing efforts to combat violence. 2023 is showing no signs of relief. This project, beginning October 1, 2023 – September 30, 2026, will utilize PSN funds to augment and expand existing efforts targeting criminal activity in the City of Dover. We propose to target high crime and violent areas of the City by increasing directed patrols using funds for overtime. The Dover PD will be supported in their efforts when needed by the Delaware State Police. Our community outreach effort with be driven by Neighbor Good Partners who will have two individuals or “Boots on the Ground” working in the community to identify the reasons for certain areas to have a higher crime rate than others, to provide intervention to the community and to identify positive and negative influencers. As a result, this will foster better police/community relations to help reduce violent and gang related crime in our target areas that are within the City of Dover.

Past efforts of PSN in Dover and other jurisdictions has brought together leadership to investigate a means of coordinating efforts. Through real time crime analysis and coordinated efforts of the research partner at Delaware State University (DSU), we can know where and when crime hot spots occur and how they correlate with social indicators. However, budgetary restrictions made it difficult to target police efforts on hot spots on an ongoing basis. Although analyses will allow a better understanding of Dover hot spots, the question of why crime is clustering in a few specific areas remains elusive. By increasing police efforts through PSN funding and targeting those efforts at the drivers of crime through risk terrain modeling in partnership with the DSU research team, we hope to demonstrate a significant reduction in overall violent crime and specifically firearms violence. The goal of PSN is to reduce gun crime and gang violence outcomes. PSN’s success will be measured by a 10% reduction in violent/gun crime and gang violence. While focusing 30% on gang related activities and violence intervention.