After 28 years with the New Castle County Police including service on the beloved Mounted Patrol Unit, Col. E.M. Setting has announced his plans to retire as police chief effective January 3.
“He has performed brilliantly in service to our community and we all owe him a deep debt of gratitude in making our police force one admired across the country,” said County Executive Thomas P. Gordon, pleased to have hired Setting to the force in 1989 after his U.S. Navy service and appointed him chief in 2012.
“The Colonel exemplifies the impeccable character, professional leadership and personal dedication that any law enforcement team would dream of having in a chief and feel blessed if they could find,” Gordon said.
Setting has been known in the force as an intelligent, articulate and natural leader who appreciates new ideas, recognizes talent in others and would not ask anything of his troops that he would not do himself.
“The Colonel effectively built on the county police’s strong history to shape a world-class force leading in so many areas -- from targeted analytical policing that cut crime substantially countywide to the use of new DNA technology and body-worn cameras that lead Delaware, as well as creating the state-of-the-art J. William Bell Fusion Center that allows the most-modern police incident response possible,” the County Executive said.
“At the same time,” Gordon added, “the Chief has led the force’s professionalism by example -- with nearly 400 officers and no police shootings or excessive force – and made the tremendous step of starting ‘Hero Help,’ Delaware’s first police program that has officers collaborate with the state to get treatment for eligible addicts instead of arresting them, in a groundbreaking strategy to fight the deadly opioid epidemic.”
Smart, compassionate, devoted and progressive, Setting has been the “force behind the force,” Gordon said, adding, that “the next chief will be lucky to come after him and inherit an extremely modern, efficient and dedicated agency.”
Gordon joins Public Safety Director Joseph Bryant Sr. and other senior staff in commending Setting for his impeccable record and countless contributions, wishing him all the best success in all his future endeavors.
