Why Should Delaware Care?
In 2025, Wilmington saw the lowest number of shooting incidents and victims in 20 years. The decrease in crime has pushed city officials to continue the effort and push for public safety initiatives in the city, including Mayor Carney’s creation of the Office of Community Safety. But a few days later, the city council had proposed its own similar office, with different oversight provisions.
After Wilmington saw a drop in crime last year, city officials are looking for ways to sustain the progress. But they’re doing it through two separate and parallel initiatives.
On Monday, Mayor John Carney signed an executive order establishing an Office of Community Safety that would coordinate violence prevention efforts between city departments and establish partnerships with community organizations.
Then, on Thursday, Councilwoman Shané Darby introduced a separate proposal to create an office with the same name. Darby’s plan differs from Carney’s several ways, with the most notable difference being that it gives the City Council more oversight.
Asked if the mayor’s office and council initiatives were connected, Daniel Walker, deputy chief of staff for Carney’s office, said they are separate actions.
“We are still working with [Darby] to ensure her ordinance is aligned with our goals and vision for this work that is located in the Mayor’s office,” Walker said in a statement to Spotlight Delaware.
The push for greater violence-prevention efforts comes after Wilmington saw a drop in crime last year. It was an encouraging development across Delaware, particularly after its largest city had suffered for years from high numbers of shootings.
In 2017, the News Journal reported that kids in Wilmington were more likely to be shot than those in any other U.S. city during the previous years.
But, last year, the city experienced the lowest number of shooting incidents and shooting victims in over two decades, according to the annual year-end crime report released last month by the Wilmington Police Department.
The new statistics also show an overall 8% drop in murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, felony theft and auto theft, over the previous year.
During the first two months of this 2026, shootings have increased but it is difficult to draw broad conclusions from such a short period. There have been nine shootings in Wilmington as of March 1, according to the city’s CompStat statistics, which are updated every week. During the same period last year, there were three. So far, none of the shootings have resulted in a death this year.
Under Carney’s new safety plan, he will appoint a Director of Community Safety, who will lead the office and report directly to him. The director will be in charge of supporting community-based groups, creating policy around public safety, facilitating coordination among different city departments, and helping manage partnerships and grant funding related to public safety programs, according to the executive order.
“The establishment of this new office will help us sustain that progress by ensuring that prevention efforts are aligned across the City,” Carney said in a recent statement.
On Thursday, the City Council approved a budget amendment for the city’s operating budget, which included a little over $45,000 for the new director position.
Walker did not provide a timeline as to when the director would be appointed.
Meanwhile, Darby’s legislation would formally establish the same office through a city ordinance.
While the proposal shares largely the same goal of reducing violence and strengthening prevention programs, Darby also asks for the council to have more say in how the office is governed.
Under Darby’s proposal, the director of the office would be appointed by the mayor, but must also be confirmed by City Council.
The City Council proposal also creates a nine-member advisory board to oversee the office. The board would include four members appointed by the mayor, four appointed by City Council, and one appointed by both the council president and the mayor.
Darby’s proposal also states that the new office must provide an annual report to the mayor and council. Carney’s executive order did not require that.
Darby did not respond to Thursday’s request for comment for this story.