Fred Neil is president of Dover City Council.
The Dover Police Academy is neither a luxury nor a necessity; it is an asset—an important and valuable one.
It was re-activated out of necessity and has transformed into a strategic advantage for the police department.
The alternative is the Delaware State Police Academy, or one of the municipal academies in New Castle County, which are excellent training programs.
However, the primary focus of the State Academy is state policing rather than municipal policing. The other Academies are a considerable distance away creating logistical challenges and commuter expenses. In addition, Dover pays a tuition fee for every candidate it sends to outside Academies, an amount that is comparable to what Dover charges other jurisdictions to attend its own academy.
Inflation continues to drive all tuition rates higher. Dover will be raising its tuition rate leading into the next session in order to keep pace with costs.
A second, and perhaps even more important, advantage of the Dover Police Academy is that it guarantees a training slot for every candidate selected by the City. Historically, that is not always the case with the other Academies. If space is limited, no slot is available, Dover has to wait longer to replace normal attrition and risks losing a qualified candidate to another agency.
The Dover Academy also provides the flexibility to determine when new classes will begin, allowing the City to better meet its staffing needs by eliminating the uncertain period between the hiring process and the beginning of basic training.
There is no question that the Dover City Council — and therefore the public — should know the cost of operating the Academy. Most of those costs are intertwined. For example, the primary instructors are regular members of the police force, already on the payroll, who perform other duties when they are not teaching at the Academy. The cost for uniforms, equipment and supplies would be the same no matter which academy a recruit would attend. In addition, most operating expenses are offset through tuition and grants awarded to the Academy.
The cost per student is largely determined by the number of candidates enrolled from Dover and other jurisdictions. When Dover has only three candidates in a class, the per-student cost is higher than when there are four or five candidates. Unless the cost of operating the Academy is dramatically higher than the tuition revenue it generates, its intrinsic value makes it an asset worthy of preserving.
Preliminary retention figures of Dover Academy graduates show a significant improvement from the retention rates recorded prior to the reactivation of the program. Improved retention of personnel actually lowers the overall cost of the hiring process and is a better return on the investment we are already making.
Closing the Dover Police Academy will not lower property taxes to any extent, but it would eliminate a valuable resource that provides training flexibility, staffing stability, and municipal focus.
