By Leann Schenke

DOVER — With the goal of forming strategies to combat violence and gang activity, Dover residents are invited to a town hall meeting.

The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the public assembly room of the Dover Police Department, 400 S. Queen St. During a Monday city council meeting, Councilman Ralph Taylor — who chairs the council’s Safety, Advisory and Transportation Committee — said the meeting will be hosted by Police Chief Thomas Johnson’s Advisory Council in collaboration with Dover Mayor Robin Christiansen and himself.

Councilman Taylor said the meeting will be limited to two hours. “Hopefully, during this meeting, we will bring up numerous creative strategies on making Dover a safer place to be,” Councilman Taylor said. “I believe in everything that’s happening here. I believe the direction we’re going is a positive one and I believe citizens need to be heard.”

He said he would like to see this meeting as the first of many and that it be followed by meetings in other locations than at the police department.

“This meeting, I hope, takes us in a different direction, meaning I hope we have meetings in low-income housing communities,” Councilman Taylor said. “Then we use this as a springboard as we start to deploy the ... mobile command unit, so it’s not just used for enforcement. That it is used as a resource that all citizens can turn to during times of need. Or just to assist the police, or to build relationships.”

Chelle Paul, who chairs the Criminal Justice Committee for the NAACP Delaware State Conference of Branches, raised concerns that the location of the meeting at the police department — as opposed to in the Dover City Hall — may deter some people from attending.

As of press time, the meeting’s location has not changed.

In an email to the mayor and some members of council, Ms. Paul also requested that a survey about the purpose and function of potential mobile command units be included with residents’ power bills.

“This will allow the residents district-wide to give true feedback on if the majority of residents and businesses want the mobile substation as a whole in the community,” she wrote.

The survey has three questions:

“Do you see a need for a Mini Mobile Police Station (mobile command unit) to be used to combat crime throughout the City of Dover with the increased gang activity and gang related shootings that have plagued the community as a whole?”

“Should the Mini Mobile Police Station be used to combat crime as its primary function?”

“Should the Mini Mobile Police Station be used to combat crime and provide social service resources as its primary function?”

The survey asks for those who complete it to give their name, address, what district they or their business resides in and any comments.