A letter sent by Sussex County Sheriff Robert Reed to County Administrator Bob Stickels on June 23 was read into the record at Tuesday’s Sussex County Council meeting, rebutting a June 13 letter sent by Georgetown Chief of Police William Topping.
Topping’s letter censuring the sheriff — which was read into Council’s June 13 meeting record — was sent on behalf of the Sussex County Chief’s Council.
“The Sussex County Chiefs Council has voted to censure the actions of the Sussex County Sheriff. The Chief’s Council feels that our respective jurisdictions do not require the assistance of the Sheriff’s office,” Topping’s letter reads, answering reported claims by Reed that he and his staff are law-enforcement officials. “He and his deputies are not trained as police offers and should not act as police officers.”
Reed’s letter claims that the last statement in Topping’s letter, specifically, could danger his deputies while they are in the field. It cites the experience of himself and four deputies, a few of whom have more than 15 years of law-enforcement experience in other states. However, only one person in the sheriff’s office — including the sheriff himself — is certified to work as a police officer in Delaware, according to Reed and Delaware Council on Police Training Records.
“Chief Topping’s reckless, slanderous and untruthful statements could possibly put these deputies in danger while performing their duties,” Reed’s letter reads. “It is amazing how certain groups wish to diminish the office of an elected sheriff who is responsible to all citizens of Sussex County.”
According to Sussex County’s Web site, the Sheriff’s office “serves papers for the courts and holds Sheriff’s sales for non-payment of taxes, mortgage foreclosures plus all other court orders.”
The Sheriff and his deputies also transport prisoners, according to Reed’s letter. That letter later questions the law-enforcement status of the sheriff’s office.
“Who will be liable if one of these armed and trained Deputy Sheriffs, while performing their duties with a town’s limit, happens upon a felony in progress against a citizen of Sussex County?” Reed asks in the letter. “Should the Deputy Sheriff ignore the situation (as implied by Chief Topping’s letter) or should he or she act to prevent a crime or even possibly save a life?”
Reed contends that the Delaware constitution grants the sheriff’s office law-enforcement powers and he seems on the surface to be correct.
In Chapter 2 of Title 11, the definition of a “law-enforcement officer” includes “sheriffs and their regular deputies.” A section of Chapter 83 of Title 11 of Delaware’s code reads that “state police should have powers similar to those of sheriffs.”
Previous discussions of Reed’s assertion, however, netted the response that the sheriff’s office was not a law-enforcement agency as such, and he and his deputies not law-enforcement officers. Reed has continued to fight that opinion, however.
Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf (D-Rehoboth) introduced HB 458 and HB 459 in May to remove “sheriffs and their regular deputies” from Chapter 2 and “similar to those of sheriffs” in Chapter 83.
Sen. George Bunting (D-Bethany Beach), the Senate sponsor of the bills, said it’s unlikely the two bills will come out of committee.
“There seems to be a difference of opinion,” Bunting said. “It needs to be corrected. The county and the state need to come to a consensus.”