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Editor’s note: Reporter Georgia Leonhart rode along with Patrolman Greg Lynch during his shift on July 5. Also observing police that night was a crew from California-based Original Productions, which is featuring Dewey Beach police and lifeguards as part of a TruTV Network series called “Ocean Force,” focusing on how resort-area law enforcement officials handle the huge influx of people who arrive on holiday weekends.
There is a rhythm to the night for Dewey Beach police, a rhythm as predictable and sometimes as dangerous as the ocean’s tides. Patrolman Greg Lynch knows the rhythm well. Beginning his shift at 10 p.m. Saturday, July 5, he got into his car. “It’s a full house tonight. There are 10 times more people here than last night,” he said.
The department is challenged by the needs of a town with an estimated year-round population of just over 300 people, a number that typically ranges from 10,000 to 20,000 in summer and soared to more than 25,000 people over the Fourth of July weekend.
The department has eight full-time officers, including Chief Sam Mackert, and 10 part-time officers. Three part-timers work the equivalent of full-time shifts throughout the summer. The 40 seasonal officers hired for this summer all work each weekend. Referred to as “seasonals,” they are often young men and women considering a career in law enforcement.
With five years’ experience in Dewey, Lynch predicted the order of the night’s events. Early calm would be supplanted by complaints about disorderly houses that would escalate into more serious incidents and then ebb into calm again sometime before the dawn, he said.
Arguments to fights
As predicted, things started slowly. The first response was to an altercation between two girlfriends when one tried to stop the other, who was intoxicated, from leaving with men she didn’t know.
“It was just a girl trying to help her friend,” Lynch said after helping defuse the situation.
The next response was to a disorderly house where young people on their way out made too much noise for neighbors.
A full-time officer in Camden, Lynch said he has to use a different style while working part-time for Dewey. “You have to talk to people differently. It’s hard to talk to a drunk,” Lynch said.
Regular people who have too much to drink, who come to have fun and go too far, commit most crimes in Dewey, Lynch said. “They’re not criminals in the usual sense of that word. They’ve often just done something foolish or stupid.”
A father of two, he said young people often don’t understand long-term repercussions their actions may have on their college and career options.
Lynch’s statements seemed prophetic near midnight when, after being asked to leave the Rusty Rudder, Kevin Yonker of Wilmington struck seasonal officer Brian Donner in the head with a beer bottle and ripped at his shirt.
Lynch and two other officers assisted Donner in restraining him. Handcuffed, he was placed in the paddy wagon where he worked his handcuffed arms under his body, and over his legs. This allowed him to extend his arms forward and use the handcuffs as weapons. It took four officers to enter the paddy wagon and again restrain him.
“He’s dangerous,” Lynch said. “He already struck one officer in the head with a bottle, so it’s obvious he doesn’t care.”
Yonker was celebrating his 22nd birthday.
As soon as Yonker was secured in the paddy wagon for the second time, another fight broke out at the same location. Joseph Brooks of Hanover, Pa., threatened officers and lunged. Lynch tackled him in the sand. Once handcuffed he cooperated with officers as he was placed in the paddy wagon.
As Yonker and Brooks were arrested, bystanders jeered at the officers and jumped about taking photographs with their cell phones. Yet the officers remained focused.
“It was a fight chain reaction,” Lynch said, adding that he has seen one fight turn into 10 in five minutes.
Armed robberies
Lynch had barely returned to his car before a call went out for an armed robbery on Swedes Street at the edge of Dewey’s town limits. Victim Sean Moran said two black males, one armed with a handgun, approached him. They held him at gunpoint, demanded his wallet and told him to lie down.
“This was the worst day I ever had,” said Moran, adding the robbers were angry that he only had $35 in cash. Thirty minutes later another person was robbed of a bookbag on the beach. Lt. Billy Hocker and police canine Hax searched the beach where they located the stolen bookbag, emptied, but no suspects.
The crescendo increased. Back at the police department, Billy Zebroski of Townsend threw himself out of the paddy wagon and onto the ground. For 20 minutes, he lay threatening and shouting obscenities at officers as they waited for an ambulance to take him to the hospital. Arrested for assaulting a woman by grabbing her around the throat, he said his injuries occurred in the paddy wagon, which he said drove 600 mph.
An officer had to go with him to the hospital, reducing the available force by one.
As the bars closed for the night, Lynch started saying what would happen and where it would happen. There were more fights and assaults, and two people who fit the descriptions of the armed robbers were stopped, handcuffed and then released.
Patience and tolerance
“Two of the most important qualities for a cop are patience and tolerance,” Lynch said.
But even Lynch was tested at 2:07 a.m. when called to evict people at the Best Western. Upon arriving he and other responding officers entered a standard two-bed room holding nine adults and littered throughout with empty containers of alcohol. In the corner was an eight-month old infant in a car seat.
“You will not allow those people back in this room and you will take care of your child,” Lynch told the mother and left after telling her the child would be taken from her if he received another complaint that night. After dealing with hundreds of drunks, an assault upon a fellow officer, concern about robbers on the streets with a gun and public ridicule throughout the night, the welfare of that one child was the only thing that elicited any type of emotional response from Lynch.
Silent during the elevator ride to the ground floor, he regained full composure and finally said, “It’s wrong to have a child in that situation.”
The night’s activities continued to ebb with scattered noise complaints, a few unfortunates who received $288 tickets because they didn’t wait to make it to a bathroom and at least one embarrassed couple ticketed because they didn’t wait until they made it back to their hotel room.
At the station at 3:30 a.m. officers prepared to write crime reports as a raucous crew of men goaded each other in the holding cell. Yonker sat quietly at the end of the bench facing felony charges with a blood alcohol level more than 0.35, more that four times the 0.08 limit that defines intoxication. He was later taken to Sussex Correctional Institution.
Brooks was given a ticket for disorderly conduct and released. Zebroski, who had sustained no injuries, was returned in good health and placed in Sussex Correctional Institution the next morning. No further calls were received from the Best Western that night.
The armed robbery suspects have not yet been apprehended.
Origninal Productions films Dewey Beach police at work
The massive change in population experienced in Dewey Beach each summer, when it goes from 300 year-round residents to more than 25,000 visitors during major summer holiday weekends, attracted the attention of California-based Original Productions. Dewey Beach police and lifeguards will be featured as part of a series called “Ocean Force” on TruTV Network.
The series will focus on how law enforcement personnel in small towns handle their responsibilities during major holidays. Dewey’s police operated under the glare of cameras as the film crew recorded all aspects of police work from June 26 through July 12.
“I and my crew were extremely impressed by how the Dewey Beach police and lifeguards handled the enormous number and different types of people they did,” said series producer Molly Mayock.
Mayock has been producing similar shows in different jurisdictions throughout the country for three seasons. Four “Ocean Force” episodes are planned and it is expected they will air in September, she said.
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