By Mike Finney

DOVER — Many city officials have heard the stories: Individuals telling of uncomfortable situations they faced when visiting downtown.

And just two weeks ago, Dover City Council President Roy Sudler Jr. got to experience one of them firsthand after leaving a Downtown Dover Partnership safety meeting at the CenDel Foundation Community Building on Loockerman Street.

“I’m very concerned about the individuals walking up to people asking them for cigarettes and money,” Councilman Sudler said at a council meeting Monday. “Last week, after a DDP safety meeting, I went to my car to leave, and an individual who was either homeless, high or mentally challenged not only walked up to me within 2 feet of distance but also proceeded to grab my left arm and said, ‘I’m not trying to rob you. I just needed some money to get a cigarette.’

“Now, this is right across from the (Driftwood Spirits liquor) store. I’m in the back parking lot area. I already said to him ,‘I don’t have any money,’ but my first initial impulse was to reach probably in a way that would have put me on the front page of the Delaware State News.”

The experience was enough for him to support 2nd District City Councilman Ralph Taylor’s proposal to bring a bricks-and-mortar Dover police substation to the area, an idea that will be heard during the Council Committee of the Whole’s Safety Advisory and Transportation meeting April 26.

Councilman Taylor said that a substation would not only serve as a deterrent to criminal activity but could also engage the community.

“I think one of the biggest secrets to downtown is we have to flood it with people, and I think having at least a substation downtown will directly impact what happens to that liquor store on Bradford Street, which also will have a direct positive impact on quality of life downtown,” he said.

“I would like to have it so that it’s an open door where people can come in and enjoy a great conversation with the police officers. It could be a respite area for the seniors, as we continue to develop downtown. Plus, all different kinds of programs could be run out of there.”

Dover Police Chief Thomas Johnson stressed that any decisions about a substation are ultimately up to elected officials.

He did note at Monday’s council meeting that more staff would be needed if a substation is built because it would have to be manned 24 hours a day.

Additionally, he said any potential site would have to fit into the city’s new community policing initiative.

“The fact that you’re there serves to a degree as a deterrent, but you can’t fill up a mini-station or mobile mini-station with police officers and look at it as a direct crime-fighting tool,” Chief Johnson said. “OK, it’s not like we’re going to pull up on the block and jump out, and then, we’re going to take like a zero-tolerance approach on everything that we see.

“That goes in the wrong direction as far as relationships and trust. It’s not a real efficient way to organize your police resources. So I think what the advantages of substations are and what their limitations are is where we have to get this conversation at some point because I think that is one of the things that’s feeding into where we have controversy over this issue.”

The chief also said it’s up to Dover’s leaders to make the call on what they would like to see in the community.

“It’s up to the elected officials to decide whether they want to go down this road,” he said. “Every one of those many stations that you would presume to put in place would require staffing, and they have their own list of expenses. And it kind of becomes a snowball kind of effect.

“If you commit to a neighborhood from a substation, then you’d better be prepared to answer the question from the next neighborhood over, ‘Well, what about us?’”

Councilman Sudler’s recent incident downtown piqued his interest in this matter. Plus, he said that incoming merchants to the area, such as La Hacienda restaurant, will require more security, so visitors will have trust in making the trip to the establishments.

“It is my view that, as soon as the sun goes down (in downtown Dover), it’s like a zombie town behind the CenDel Foundation (building) and in the former Wells Fargo parking lot area,” he said. “I think we need to step it up a little bit more right in that area that seems to be an area that’s starting to grow. We still have our issues a little bit on New Street but not as much. It’s getting much better.

“It seems like they’re finding different little pockets, and with the new initiatives — merchants coming downtown like La Hacienda and just all new merchants coming downtown and future business — I think it would be in our best interest to have a brick-and-mortar (police station) downtown.”