Award-winning Dover detective follows the clues
By DOVER — It was hardly a movie-style investigation, plus an arrest was roughly three months in the making.
But, in his probe of a series of overnight burglaries last year, Dover Police Detective Timothy Mullaney Jr. chipped away at clues and accumulated enough evidence to make an apprehension.
His work earned him the Robert J. Seinsoth Memorial Award as the 2022 Delaware Crime Stoppers Law Enforcement Officer of the Year. He received the honor at a Delaware Association of Chiefs of Police meeting earlier this month.
Dover police said the case involved investigation into 10 burglaries within close proximity on the U.S. 13 corridor during August, September and October 2021. Detectives identified a suspect who lived in the vicinity, and an arrest was made Oct. 5 of that year. The matter is still pending in the courts.
Detective Mullaney credited the team of Dover officers and others for solving the case, and drew individual praise himself, as well.
“The Crime Stoppers award given to Detective Tim Mullaney only gives credit for an individual investigation,” Criminal Investigations Unit Lt. Aaron Dickinson said. “What is doesn’t capture is the fact that Detective Mullaney is a very skilled investigator who puts in a great deal of effort into all of his cases. He is known as a team player amongst his peers and is relentless when it comes to solving crime.
“He is a true asset to the Dover Police Department.”
Delaware Crime Stoppers executive director Michael Gallagher added, “Detective Mullaney and his incredible investigative efforts made the decision to award him (the honor) an easy decision.”
The prize is given to a law enforcement officer “who has gone above and beyond the call of duty in solving a case(s), apprehending a suspect or contributing significantly to major investigation during the fiscal year July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022. (Not inclusive of prosecution),” according to Crime Stoppers.
Detective Mullaney earned an associate degree in criminal justice from Delaware Technical Community College and was hired by the capital city in 2005. He began as a dispatcher for the fire department and then moved to the Fire Marshal’s Office as a code enforcement officer. He joined the police department in 2016.
There’s no set schedule for solving a case, he said.
“Sometimes, you get lucky, where you have those cases where you get somebody right (during) the act or right after the act,” the 39-year-old Caesar Rodney High graduate said. “But, in a lot of our cases, it’s in-depth investigations. It takes, sometimes, weeks, months, just to keep pushing forward, and we meet a lot of roadblocks along the way. But we rely on each other because there’s a good set of skillsets throughout the department. So it’s very easy to get stuck but then get unstuck real quick.
“It’s all about the teamwork. You have to be able to work with each other. You have to admit you don’t know what the next step is and then look around. Every case is important because it has a victim (who deserves justice).”
