The number of murders in Wilmington was at its lowest for 15 years in 2022, and the number of shootings was the second lowest in 17 years, according to a new report issued by Delaware’s largest city. Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki and lame duck Chief of Police Robert J. Tracy on Tuesday released the Wilmington Police Department’s 2022 Year-End Crime …
The city of Wilmington is in need of a new top cop. Police Chief Robert Tracy has been selected as a finalist to become police commissioner in St. Louis, Missouri, he announced Monday night. Whether or not he gets the job, Tracy will leave the Wilmington Police Department, the mayor’s office confirmed Tuesday. It’s not clear when Tracy plans to …
Wilmington police officers will take weekly walks through the city to engage with residents and distribute information about social services, Mayor Mike Purzycki announced Wednesday. The initiative aims to address unmet social service and public health needs in Wilmington neighborhoods, according to the mayor. “Our police officers have demonstrated time and time again that if they have an opportunity, beyond …
The Wilmington Police Department is re-establishing its Police Cadet apprenticeship program. Open to young adults 18 to 21 years old, the initiative will give participants experience working directly with police officers and community members. The department last offered an apprenticeship program in the 1990s. “We are excited to re-start our department’s historic Police Cadet Program, with an eye towards …
A report on reducing and preventing gun violence in Wilmington recommends the city fund several existing intervention organizations. create a coordinator position to oversee those groups and create more programming. Organizations that wanted to provide programming must have street level relationships and already actively engage in intervention work, the report from The Community Based Public Safety Collective. Mayor Mike Purzycki …
The city of Wilmington and CityFest Inc. will show off their new Urban Artist Exchange and the work of its 21 teen summer apprentice artists Saturday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. The open house will coincide with Wilmington Open Streets and precede a 6 p.m. storytelling, drumming and dance performance at the nearby amphitheater. All the events are …
Delaware’s tall ship, the Kalmar Nyckel, sails to the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation Tuesday. Photo by Deborah Webb. The Kalmar Nyckel celebrated her 25th anniversary Tuesday with the crew sailing Delaware’s tall ship through the 4th Street drawbridge to its foundation’s shipyard, and then giving a two-cannon salute after the national anthem was played. About 200 people watched it sail …
Gov. John Carney, left, and Dr. Mark Holodick, secretary of the Delaware Department of Education talk to the Brandywine School District board. The Brandywine School District board voted unanimously Monday night to join the Wilmington Learning Collaborative, following the lead of the Christina district. The Collaborative, a idea lobbied for by Gov. John Carney’s office and the Delaware …
The city of Wilmington will pour $50 million into residential redevelopment, starting in the city’s historic east side. That will include a new state-funded, state-of-the-art Bancroft School with classes and programming for students in first through eighth grade, as well as new athletic fields and after-hours programming. The first $30 million of the city’s projects will be spent in an …
Chief Robert Tracy/Wilmington Police Department A petition expressing support for the Wilmington Police Department has gathered more than 600 signatures after the Wilmington City Council on Thursday passed a “vote of no confidence” in Chief Robert Tracy. The vote happened after a nearly three-hour-long Public Safety Committee meeting Tuesday during which Tracy and others defended the department’s practices amidst claims …
