IACP consultants tell Ocean View council out-of-town assists are a modest portion of work but carry outsized risk

Consultants from the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) presented a risk analysis to the Ocean View town council at a workshop, saying officers’ out-of-jurisdiction responses make up a modest share of the department’s workload but account for a disproportionate number of high-risk incidents and the town’s largest liability exposure.

Megan Kasanova, senior program manager at the IACP, told councilors the study focused on three areas: understanding the operational environment, conducting a legal and risk analysis, and identifying mitigation strategies. "The analysis focused on three areas," she said, "the first was developing an understanding of the operational environment... Next we did a legal and risk analysis. And third was identification of risk mitigation strategies." The IACP team said it interviewed 21 officials and reviewed calls-for-service and case law to produce its findings.

The consultants reported that "13.8% of all of the Ocean View Police Department calls for service involved assisting other agencies," said Joe Price, an IACP consultant. He said that while not all assist calls are outside Ocean View’s borders, the largest share of assists goes to Delaware State Police Troop 4. Over the 2021–2024 period, assists to Troop 4 constituted about 9% of Ocean View’s total calls for service; assists into the adjoining town of Millville represented roughly 2% of total calls. Price said Ocean View officers averaged about 110 minutes per month responding to Millville incidents in 2024 and that there were 47 Millville incidents that year, with state troopers dispatched to all and Ocean View clearing eight before troopers arrived.

John Fitzgerald, an IACP consultant and former municipal police chief, framed the legal analysis around five key questions, including whether officers have legal authority to respond outside town limits and whether the state should consider indemnifying local agencies. "The short answer to the authority question... is yes, the Ocean View police officers have authority to respond outside of the town under multiple circumstances," Fitzgerald said, citing dispatch authority, the Police Mutual Assistance Act (mutual-aid law), fresh pursuit and other statutory scenarios in the Delaware Code.

Fitzgerald warned that the department’s greatest financial exposure comes from federal litigation under Section 1983, which he said is uncapped and can include attorney fees. "Federal is the largest risk," he said, noting that while Delaware state law imposes caps and immunities (generally limiting awards to the greater of $300,000 or a municipality’s liability limit), Section 1983 claims present higher financial risk.

The consultants highlighted that several high-risk call types occur disproportionately outside Ocean View: for example, they reported about 51% of personal-injury collisions, 68% of domestic incidents, 75% of warrant services, 75% of pursuits and 76% of psychiatric incidents in the selected call-type sample were run outside the town. The consultants characterized pursuits and similar incidents as "ultra-hazardous" and said their frequency outside town boundaries elevates overall liability risk.

To manage risk, the IACP team recommended near-term and long-term steps: further restrict the department’s pursuit policy, work with Delaware State Police to filter or triage nonurgent assist requests so local officers do not routinely respond to calls that can safely wait for state troopers, increase liability insurance limits, and explore state legislative indemnification for local agencies that assist state police on state-assigned calls. "One way to reduce risk is to filter the calls that you respond to," Fitzgerald said. He added that raising insurance levels would protect the town from large federal awards: "Because the federal lawsuits could be $10 million," he said, insurance could be an important protection.

During a Q&A, a council member asked for a missing table on Ocean View’s population diversity referenced in the report and a missing case title in the appendix. Presenters said the demographic table exists and will be provided, and that the appendix case referenced David Scott Jarnell v. Corporal Anthony Mendes; they agreed to supply corrected appendix material. On whether the town should raise insurance given the state cap on some awards, Fitzgerald reiterated that the cap applies to many state-law claims but not to uncapped federal suits, which is why higher insurance limits were suggested.

The workshop did not include any formal vote on policy changes. The council accepted the presentation materials into the record for discussion during the regular council meeting, when members may consider policy or budgetary actions. Presenters said they would provide corrected tables and appendix information and next steps would be discussed at the regular meeting. The workshop was then adjourned.