Mayor Dennis P. Williams joined Morton Kimmel, founding partner of Kimmel, Carter, Roman, Peltz & O’Neill law firm; Dave Tiberi, president of Emergency Response Protocol; and local business and community leaders to announce the establishment of the First State Police Foundation.
The First State Police Foundation (FSPF) will be comprised of corporate and civic leaders from the City of Wilmington and across the State of Delaware charged to leverage private resources to address public safety in local communities.
As an independent, non-profit organization, FSPF will strive to promote and maintain public safety by providing charitable donations and corporate sponsorship funding to local police departments to improve the safety of the community.
In addition to the support of business leaders, the FSPF will include the advisement of community stakeholders including Reverend Silvester Beaman, apstor of Bethel A.M.E. Church; Reverend Terrence Keeling, pastor of Central Baptist Church and President/ Chief Executive Officer of the Central Baptist Community Development Corporation; and Ted Blunt, former president of Wilmington City Council.
The FSPF’s pilot project will involve the installment of cameras as part of the Woodlawn Trustees’ Eastside Rising development initiative. Specifically, the FSPF looks to raise $250,000 to install state-of-the-art cameras throughout the eastside community. These cameras were recently installed at Delaware State University, and as a result of the cameras, seven arrests were made in the first week of installment.
“The First State Police Foundation will have the ability to support innovative programs, like the implementation of these state-of-the-art cameras, which should address crime in targeted areas,” said Williams. “I hope this foundation will spark a spirit of collaboration among law enforcement officials, business leaders and community stakeholders as we all work to fight crime in our city. I thank all of the business and community leaders who have been at the forefront to establish our state’s first foundation directly addressing public safety.”
Across the country, municipalities and states have established police foundations, which allow the business community to provide police departments with the additional resources necessary to better serve and protect citizens within the community.
