In the wake of four young Black men being charged with a variety of criminal offenses for organizing a takeover on the Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk, civil rights organizations raised significant concerns with how law enforcement handled the situation. Young people congregating in the beach communities is a long-standing tradition in Delaware, and events organized on social media have become more commonplace. While anyone congregating should abide by local laws, the decision to charge the four organizers with crimes including inciting a riot, a term that has racial connotations to it, was questionable at best. These concerns by civil rights leaders were seemingly confirmed when the Delaware Department of Justice announced that it would dismiss all charges against the organizers. 

The Rehoboth Beach incident is strikingly similar to another incident in Dewey Beach last summer when a group of young people of color was stopped and harassed by local police. Those young people and their parents charged that law enforcement targeted them because of their race, as other young people were not subjected to the same scrutiny their group was. 

After a public records request for body-worn camera footage capturing this incident in Dewey Beach was denied, the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware filed a lawsuit against the town. Recently, in a major win for police transparency and accountability, the ACLU-DE settled the lawsuit because officials agreed to provide the footage.  

It should not be a major milestone when law enforcement simply provides body-worn camera footage to the public, but unfortunately, it is exceedingly rare in Delaware. Most law enforcement agencies regularly deny Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain this footage, meaning the public must rely on police to release it themselves or initiate expensive and time-consuming lawsuits under the Freedom of Information Act to vindicate their rights. 

In the wake of the George Floyd murder in 2020, elected officials decided to require law enforcement agencies in Delaware to use body-worn cameras to promote greater transparency and accountability. However, these reforms are rendered ineffective when the public cannot gain access to the very footage that is supposed to provide greater transparency. It also continues to allow law enforcement to police themselves, further eroding trust. 

The Rehoboth Beach and Dewey Beach incidents have a common bond and are not unique. So-called quality-of-life laws have a long history of being weaponized against communities of color. These include laws on disorderly conduct, youth curfews and unlawful assembly. Police officers often have wide latitude to determine by whom, how and when these laws are enforced, and there is implicit bias that subconsciously makes Black and brown people more likely to be deemed dangerous.

When justice appears unequal, it causes people to lose faith in the system. The intention behind requiring all law enforcement agencies to utilize body-worn cameras is to provide footage of what happened during an incident, which can help to uncover discrimination or absolve a law enforcement officer of wrongdoing. Black and brown communities continue to have mistrust over how law enforcement interacts with them, and that cannot change unless there is transparency followed by true accountability. 

In the Rehoboth Beach incident, while the charges have been dropped against these young men, the damage has not been undone. Rehoboth Beach officials have pledged an independent investigation into the law enforcement response, but it may be hard for the public to accept those findings if the community is not engaged and if there is not a transparent investigation. 

Delaware continues to have some of the most opaque laws in the nation for police records, including body-worn camera footage. Elected officials in the General Assembly must finish the work they began in 2020 and ensure that body-worn camera footage and disciplinary records are available to all members of the public. Until then, Delaware communities will continue in this cycle of incidents that undermine trust between law enforcement and communities, with no end in sight.