661 South Street
Townsend, DE 19734

Townsend Police Department

661 South Street
Townsend, DE 19734

By Craig Anderson

TOWNSEND — He served as a Delaware assistant deputy attorney general prosecuting child support cases.

Sgt. Earl McCloskey also worked as a police officer in Delaware City and Elsmere.

For a couple years, he directed the Delaware Justice Information System.

Now, Sgt. McCloskey is with the Townsend Police Department and earned recognition as the 2023 Delaware Crime Stoppers Robert J. Seinsoth Law Enforcement Officer of the Year for his work there.

The award was fueled by Sgt. McCloskey’s investigation of a juvenile rape case that began last summer and concluded with an adult’s conviction.

Sgt. McCloskey described any investigation as “a puzzle. A lot of stuff has to fall together. Delaware is a tough state to procesute anything so I was fortunate in this case.”

Even with the good work, Sgt. McCloskey said the award “was totally not anticipated. My chief (Bob Longo) is a great person and unbeknownst to me he put me up for the Delaware Crime Stoppers Award which is a great award for any officer to get.”

The award was well deserved, according to Chief Longo, who said the selection committee was unanimous in its choice.

Sgt. McCloskey won the award for departments with 19 officers or fewer.

“He did a phenomenal job and being the small agency that we are, you have to multi-task and take different roles,” Chief Longo said.

“Earl has taken the lead on investigations and he was absolutely deserving of the award.”

On the Townsend Police Facebook page, a tribute said, “This prestigious recognition is a testament to Sgt. McCloskey’s exceptional dedication to duty, specifically, a month’s long criminal investigation which led to the apprehension of the named suspect.”

And with the award came a trophy “that has to be the greatest of all time. It’s a brass eagle and it’s a really cool thing.”

Sgt. McCloskey joined the force in August 2022, and Chief Longo said he’s been blessed with a strong second-in-command officer ever since. The department has two other officers coming aboard soon, Chief Longo said.

“What he brings here is what I have wanted as a second-in-command,” Chief Longo said.

“We sit down and talk, we bounce ideas off each other so if I said something and he had a better solution then go with it.

“Neither one of us has the ego of ‘I said this’ or ‘I’m doing that.' It’s a partnership in every way.”

A valuable component in Sgt. McCloskey’s success has been his wife Anita McCloskey, who recently retired as a sergeant after more than 30 years with the Delaware State Police.

“She’s seen a lot more cases than I have so I have to give her credit as well,” he said. “When I needed to get advice for various things and make sure I was dotting i’s and crossed my t’s, she was a great resource to have.

“She’s just a really good investigator.”