New Castle City Police Chief Rick McCabe is the president of the Delaware Association of Chiefs of Police, and Marvin Mailey is its executive director.
In a recent Opinion, Dr. James Nolan argues that policing should prioritize collaboration, trust and problem-solving (“Let’s focus on police accountability, reform”). We agree. Where we differ is his suggestion that Delaware has yet to embrace that model.
It has. And rather than calling for another round of legislation, we would invite Dr. Nolan and other critics of law enforcement to participate in the collaborative process Delaware has already created.
Over the past several years, Delaware has fundamentally changed how policing is governed and held accountable. The Police Officers’ Due Process and Accountability Act replaced the former Law-Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights in 2023 and strengthened a statewide system designed not simply to respond to misconduct but to continuously evaluate and improve policing.
At the center of that system is the Police Officer Standards and Training Commission. POST establishes professional and training standards, oversees officer certification and reviews serious, sustained misconduct that can result in decertification.
Importantly, POST is not law enforcement policing itself. The commission has more nonsworn members than law enforcement officers and brings together state officials, legislators, local leaders, gubernatorial appointees and law enforcement representatives with different perspectives on how policing should work.
POST also advises the Delaware Police Accreditation Commission, which develops and continuously reviews the accreditation standards governing Delaware police agencies. Delaware is unique in requiring every law enforcement agency to maintain accreditation under a statewide system.
Those standards are not frozen in time. They can evolve as laws change, technology changes, best practices develop and we learn from real-world experience.
And that is where Dr. Nolan’s call for collaboration becomes especially important.
DPAC meetings are public. So are the police accountability committees established throughout Delaware to give residents a direct connection to their local police agencies. These processes provide something far more valuable than another debate between competing sides: a place where people who disagree can sit at the same table, identify problems and work toward solutions.
If Dr. Nolan believes Delaware’s policing standards reinforce the wrong priorities, bring that argument to the table. If advocates believe an accreditation standard should change, participate in the process and make the case. If community members see a problem that police leaders do not, we need to hear it.
That is collaboration.
Real change does not happen by yelling from the sidelines. It happens by participating in the process and working with people whose experiences, perspectives and conclusions may be different from your own.
And that same collaborative approach increasingly defines the work officers do outside these commissions.
Modern Delaware policing is not simply stops, arrests and citations. Officers work with schools and young people, respond to behavioral health crises, support youth programs and community events, assist victims and partner with service providers and community organizations to address problems before they become criminal justice problems.
That work does not fit Dr. Nolan’s description of officers as outsiders who simply “monitor, surveil and seize.”
None of this means we should stop examining policing. Policies that fail should change. Standards that no longer reflect best practices should be improved. But Delaware has deliberately created mechanisms to do those things continuously.
POST can update statewide standards and training, plus hold individual officers accountable. DPAC can strengthen the professional standards agencies must meet. Police accountability committees within agencies give residents a formal avenue to engage their local departments. These systems embed reform into the operation of policing, rather than waiting for the next controversy to produce the next piece of legislation.
That is a more sustainable model of reform.
Dr. Nolan argues that policing should be measured by whether it builds safer, stronger communities. Again, we agree. So, let’s use the collaborative system Delaware has built to determine what is working, identify what is not and change it together. But collaboration requires more than demanding a seat at the table. It requires showing up once that seat exists. The table is there. The meetings are public. The mechanisms for change exist.
The work is not finished. It never will be. Policing will continue to evolve, and our standards must evolve with it.
If we agree that collaboration is the way forward, then let’s collaborate.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
