New City of Delaware Police Chief Adam Moore said he feels privileged to lead the department, and one of his main goals is to help the department continue to provide a quality service for the community.
Moore served as interim police chief for several months after former Chief Bruce Pijanowski retired in May. Moore was formally appointed to the position on Sept. 13. Moore, 45, has been with the City of Delaware Police Department since 2002 and has been a police captain for 10 years.
“We have a great department made up of great people,” Moore said. “You hear a lot of people say ‘the police department did this’ but in reality, people do things, and we are fortunate to have really good people at the police department. It’s a privilege to be selected to lead that team. … I can’t say enough about the community’s support that I felt and received while going through this process. I’m so thankful for that.”
Moore said the past month has been a transition as he stepped into overseeing the entire department.
“It’s a new job with different responsibilities, so I’ve got to adjust to those,” he said. “There is a change from being part of a very specific chain of command with a very specific area of responsibility. … In the chief’s position, I’m now responsible for all the functions of the department, so I need to spend some time brushing up on some areas I may not have worked with in five, six, seven, eight years. Initially, I’m going to spend some time looking at that.”
To facilitate that, Moore said he’s been spending full shifts working in a cruiser on each of the three shifts, including working an afternoon shift over the weekend earlier this month.
“It is important for me to see firsthand the work and challenges confronting officers,” Moore said. “It also gives me another opportunity to interact with community members.”
Moore said one of the parts of the job he’s looking forward to most is continuing to grow relationships between the community and the police department.
“The big goal is providing the best service possible to our community and to make Delaware as safe as we can possibly make it,” Moore said. “I believe the DPD has really strong relationships in the community. I’m a relationship person and my hope would be to strengthen and deepen those relationships because working together as a community is how we get those best possible outcomes. … In life, in my career, I’ve always wanted to feel like I was moving forward. This was the next opportunity to be able to serve my community and that’s what appealed to me.”
Moore spent time as a school resource officer and said he’s always pleased when his former students recognize him.
“I still see kids who are adults now who were my DARE students, and they say, ‘Hey Officer Moore, how’s it going?,’ and you can’t put a price on that,” Moore said.
Moore, who added he’s thankful for the positive relationships between the department and all the other law enforcement agencies in the county, said Delaware County’s law enforcement is all on the same team.
“All of our law enforcement partners in the community are facing the same challenges: growth and resources, and we cannot do this alone,” Moore said. “It’s so much better to be able to do it as a team and work together to get better outcomes. I think that we are very fortunate in this county that we have really strong relationships amongst all the departments. We all have the same goal, so it just makes sense to work together.”
Moore said the other main challenge facing the department is technology.
“Technology is moving so fast,” he said. “So much criminal behavior being reported to us involves technology. I tell people all the time that the things that people do to other people that cause our involvement; (for example) theft, assault … haven’t change. But in some ways how people do it has changed (because of technology).”
Moore gave the example of thieves no longer needing to break into a place to steal money when they can run a phone or email scam.
Moore said another priority for him is staffing positions in the department.
“Recruiting people into our profession is a challenge,” he said. “One of the most important jobs of the police chief is hiring. We have to put the right people with the right hearts into uniform. (Part of that is) building relationships with places where we’re going to find the officers of tomorrow.”
Moore said he’s proud of the police department and is looking forward to serving as its chief.
“The police department, in my opinion, provides an excellent product, and I think one of the challenges moving forward is how do we make that product even better, juxtaposed against all the challenges everyone is facing out there, growth and resources,” Moore said. “I told the officers that I’m proud of them now and I would hope when I leave that they would be proud of me. … At the end of the day, I just want to be known as Adam and be known as a good guy.”
