New Castle Police Blotter

New Castle is a historic city in New Castle County with about 5,000 residents and the well-known New Castle Green and Court House. The New Castle Police Department is the primary law enforcement agency for the city. The New Castle police blotter pulls from city press releases, the police news feed, and incident reports handled under Delaware FOIA. FOIA requests go to the city's FOIA office, with the New Castle County Sheriff's Office backing up civil process and warrant service. This page walks through every New Castle police blotter source and shows where to send a records request.

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New Castle Police Department

The New Castle Police Department serves the historic city as a full-service municipal agency. The department runs patrol and investigations. Community policing is a core piece of the operation. The historic district gets its own patrol focus during tourist season. Services cover emergency response, crime prevention, and traffic enforcement.

Records from the department include incident reports and accident reports. FOIA requests are accepted. Victim copies of crime reports are free on the first pull under Delaware law. Non-victims need a subpoena or other legal route. The New Castle police blotter runs through the department and city hall for public items.

Note: The New Castle Police Department is separate from the New Castle County Division of Police, so match your records request to the agency that took the call.

New Castle City FOIA Form

The City of New Castle provides a standardized FOIA request form. Fill in the name of the public body you are asking, your name and address, the date of the request, your contact info, and a detailed description of the records you want. Be as specific as possible. Note record types, dates, parties to correspondence, and subject matter.

New Castle City FOIA form for New Castle police blotter requests

The form sits online at newcastlecity.delaware.gov/foia. Voluminous records requests may be delayed. Original records must be examined at the office of the public body. Costs may apply. You can specify a maximum amount willing to pay on the form itself.

The city has 15 business days to respond under 29 Del. C. § 10003(h). Within that window, the city can provide access, deny with a reason, or ask for more time. Under Delaware FOIA, a request itself may count as a public record. Keep personal details off the form when possible.

New Castle Police News Feed

The City of New Castle publishes police news and announcements on the official city site. Content covers arrest reports, incident updates, community events, and public safety info. That news feed is one of the main public sources for the New Castle police blotter.

New Castle City news feed with New Castle police blotter updates

Read the feed at newcastlecity.delaware.gov/news. The posts mix police items with other city news. Look for tagged police posts. For items handled by the state police, check the Delaware State Police Newsroom.

New Castle Public Records Directory

The New Castle public records directory gives an overview of every records office that serves the city. The city has a Mayor and City Council form of government. Law enforcement comes primarily from the New Castle Police Department, with support from the New Castle County Sheriff's Office at the county level.

New Castle records directory for police blotter and court files

The New Castle records directory covers arrest records through NCPD, court records through Wilmington courts, property records through New Castle County, and vital records through the state Division of Public Health. Fingerprinting is available at New Castle Police for employment background checks, professional licensing, volunteer work, immigration applications, and firearm purchases.

Inmate searches run through the Delaware Department of Correction online database at doc.delaware.gov. The database tracks current custody status across all Delaware DOC facilities.

Warrants and Court Records for New Castle

Active warrants tied to New Castle police blotter cases live in the DELJIS public wanted persons file. The database holds more than 70,000 open warrants from across Delaware. Run a search at pubsrv.deljis.delaware.gov. Last name is required. First name is optional.

Criminal court cases tied to a New Castle police blotter arrest move through the Wilmington courts. Superior Court at 500 N. King Street hears felonies. Court of Common Pleas in the same building takes misdemeanors. Pull case dockets at courts.delaware.gov/CourtConnect.

The New Castle County Sheriff's Office at 87 Reads Way, New Castle, DE 19720, provides additional law enforcement support. Call (302) 395-8450. The sheriff handles civil process, warrant service, court security, and inmate transport. Sheriff's sale information and civil process records live with the sheriff's office.

Types of New Castle Police Blotter Records

A New Castle police blotter request can pull several kinds of records. The historic district, waterfront, and Delaware Memorial Bridge area each see different call patterns. Summer events and tourist traffic add to the mix.

Common New Castle police blotter items include:

Arrest reports with name, age, and charges
Incident reports from calls for service
Traffic crash reports
Press items for major arrests and events
Fingerprinting service records
Community event bulletins

A historic FOIA opinion from April 1999, known as 99-IB02, involved a consultant's report on the management of the New Castle City Police Department. The AG determined the report was properly exempt under the personnel file exemption. The opinion shaped what the city can hold back when a personnel review is involved.

New Castle Sex Offender and Safety Info

For sex offender info in New Castle, use the Delaware Sex Offender Central Registry. Only Tier II and Tier III offenders show on the public site. Tier I offenders do not appear. The state runs the registry under Title 11, sections 4120 and 4121. Call the State Bureau of Identification at (302) 739-5882 to report bad info.

Anonymous tips go to Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIP-3333. Cash rewards may be available for tips that help solve a case. For state-level filings, use the State of Delaware FOIA Portal. The ACLU of Delaware guide walks through the FOIA process step by step.

New Castle Crime Data and Trends

New Castle crime data flows into the state Statistical Analysis Center through the State Bureau of Identification. Pull the data at sac.delaware.gov. The center puts out the annual Crime in Delaware report. The New Castle police blotter items get coded through NIBRS and roll into the county-wide and state-wide summaries.

Statewide trends from 2016 to 2020 showed overall serious crime down 20 percent. Property offenses fell 26 percent. Violent crime fell 17 percent. Homicides rose 38 percent over the same span. Small historic cities like New Castle see most of their call volume in larceny, disorderly conduct, and traffic enforcement.

For fire investigation records, the New Castle County Fire Marshal FOIA contact is Robert L. Fox at 2307 MacArthur Road, (302) 323-5375. File through statefiremarshal.delaware.gov. The Fire Marshal's office handles fire cause and arson investigations.