Steve Smyk, ‘public safety activist,’ reflects on recent events

I sat down with Steve Smyk last week for a wide-ranging, three-hour interview. He let me know at the end of our session that he had filed the day before to run for a fifth term as representative for Delaware’s 20th District.

Including a portion of Georgetown and all of Milton and Lewes, the 20th is nearly as wide-ranging as our talk that morning. We discussed everything from militant groups that he says came in from out of state to sow violence and promote organized looting under the cover of peaceful demonstrations, to a woeful lack of mental health services in Delaware, the burgeoning size of his representative district – the second-largest by population in Delaware – and his concern that the ranks of the 700-strong Delaware State Police force are being reduced by dozens of recent retirements.

“My understanding is that there are now 200 troopers eligible for retirement. In the week following the demonstrations in Wilmington, Dover and Rehoboth, 45 put in their resignation letters. That number is now up to 70. Retiring and not replacing. We’re defunding police in Delaware without ever saying a word.”

Where does Smyk get his information? He’s retired from a decades-long career as a Delaware State Police trooper and is immediate past president of the Delaware State Troopers Association. “I’m well known in the police community,” he said. “They call me.”

A long weekend in early June saw, on successive days, violent and destructive demonstrations in Wilmington and Dover, and a third in Rehoboth that remained peaceful under strong police presence.

Smyk said Delaware then braced for three simultaneous and organized demonstrations called for the following Friday in the same three cities. He said those planned demonstrations, more of the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, had the organizational trademarks of the previous Delaware demonstrations.

After a week of high tension, worrying about keeping protesters and property protected, officers, said Smyk, were exhausted and scared. “They felt they were facing a military foe, were being told not to engage rioters, and worried they didn’t have the support of the governor or the attorney general.

“We had property owners standing outside their businesses with guns. They had already lost a lot to COVID, and they couldn’t afford to lose more. Up and down the state, concern spread. Many felt this was a life-threatening situation.”

Smyk said he alerted other legislators, local police departments, town officials in Lewes, Beebe Healthcare. The governor, he said, was ultimately convinced to send Delaware National Guard personnel, trained in dealing with civil disobedience, to Wilmington.

The combination of the intelligence that had been gathered, preparation by a variety of law enforcement agencies, and what Smyk called “divine intervention” in Wilmington that Friday night – heavy rain – resulted in the demonstrations being held in check. By the end of our interview, I was convinced that the seriousness of what occurred over that period of a week deserves a bipartisan state investigation to be better prepared for the future.

“I’m an activist for public safety,” said Smyk. “The intelligence, troop commanders, special ops guys – all of them – they are the heroes. We need to tell those coming into Delaware to bring their love and leave their racism home. If you start with love and end with love, you will be successful at touching people’s lives. Martin Luther King Jr. approached with love and Jesus Christ did more with love than any other weapon.”