Delaware
Delaware’s Police Officer Standards and Training Commission (POST) certifies police officers and “shall” suspend or revoke certification on grounds listed in statute. In 2023 the State replaced the Council on Police Training with POST, required POST to publish summaries of its decisions, and rewrote the officers’ bill of rights to require misconduct narratives, Brady disclosure, and record sharing with future employers. A 2025 act adds victims’ review of their own recorded statements to POST’s body-worn camera standards, and a 2026 act requires every agency to report deaths in custody. Juvenile Civil Citation training joins the in-service standards on February 20, 2027.
- Sources checked
- Part of
- Officer Ledger
At a glance
- Certifying body
- Police Officer Standards and Training Commission (POST). It sets qualifications and training, certifies officers, holds hearings, and suspends or revokes certification. The Department of Safety and Homeland Security provides staff. As of August 7, 2023, all powers of the former Council on Police Training passed to POST (11 Del. C. §§ 8402 to 8404A, 8411).
- Statute
- 11 Del. C. chapter 84 (Police Officer Standards and Training Commission) and chapter 92, renamed in 2023 Police Officers’ Due Process, Accountability, and Transparency (formerly the Law-Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights). Regulations: 1 Del. Admin. Code 801 to 803, still titled for the “Delaware Council on Police Training.”
- Minimum standards
- No one may be appointed without completing training at an approved school (§ 8405). By regulation, applicants must be U.S. citizens and at least 21 for full-time officers (18 for seasonal). They must pass physical, vision, hearing, and drug screens and a psychological exam, and need a high school diploma, a driver’s license, a background investigation, a competency exam, and state and national fingerprint checks. A conviction that bars weapon possession is disqualifying (Reg. 801 §§ 3.0, 23.0, 24.0). Since August 7, 2023, every new hire must sign an agreement letting the officer’s personnel, disciplinary, and misconduct-investigation records be shared with any future hiring agency (§ 9210(g)).
- Decertification
- The Commission “shall” suspend or revoke certification for a certificate issued by fraud, mistake, or deceit; failure to complete required training; a felony conviction or probation before judgment, or a theft, fraud, public-trust, or drug offense; psychological unfitness; discharge after a chapter 92 hearing or waiver, or retirement or resignation before findings, for conduct warranting discharge; and decertification in another jurisdiction (§ 8404(a)(4)). Hearings go before a 3-member board, with a full-Commission vote and appeal to Superior Court within 15 days (§ 8404A). Agencies must complete investigations even after the officer separates and must report any sustained finding to the Commission (§ 9200(c)(13)).
- Public decertification list
- Summaries of Commission decisions must be published on its website and are public records (§ 8404A(5)). POST’s Commission Decision Summaries page lists officer names, agencies, and dates, from January 9, 2024 to June 24, 2026. Separately, agencies must send narratives to the Criminal Justice Council for shootings at persons, force causing serious physical injury, and sustained findings of sexual assault or harassment, dishonesty, or domestic violence, and the Council posts them (§ 9210(a)). Narratives must leave out victim and witness identities, and the officer’s name may be withheld in a domestic violence case where it would identify the victim. Annual complaint statistics are also posted (§ 9211).
- National Decertification Index
- Regulation only: “A search should also be made” of the Index to see whether an applicant has been decertified elsewhere, and prior decertification “may” be grounds for rejection (Reg. 801 § 3.9). No statute names the Index. Decertification in another jurisdiction is a statutory ground for suspension or revocation (§ 8404(a)(4)f).
- Continuing training
- By regulation, each certified officer must complete 16 hours of in-service training every year and requalify with firearms every year (Reg. 801 §§ 5.3.1, 11.4). Recurring topics include sexual assault (2 hours every 4 years for patrol and sex-crimes units) and child abuse and domestic violence (1 hour every 3 years). Missing mandated in-service training is grounds for suspension until it is completed (§ 19.5). From February 20, 2027, the statutory in-service standards must also include Juvenile Civil Citation program training (85 Del. Laws c. 140).
Changes, 2023 to 2026
Every agency must report deaths in custody, or lose federal pass-through funds
The Criminal Justice Council must ensure compliance with the federal Death in Custody Reporting Act through the Statistical Analysis Center. Each agency must report any death of a person in custody, defined broadly to include people not free to leave an encounter or being pursued. Agencies with no deaths must file a quarterly affirmation within 15 days after each federal fiscal quarter. The Council reports on compliance each year by December 1. An agency found noncompliant by case decision loses eligibility for listed federal pass-through funds, including Byrne JAG. The medical examiner must flag in-custody deaths in DelVERS. The whole chapter is new.
For officers: A death during an arrest, pursuit, or other encounter where the person was not free to leave must be reported by your agency.
Body-worn camera standards must cover a victim’s right to review their own recorded statements
POST’s periodic review of body-worn camera regulations must cover storage, dissemination, and a victim’s right to review the part of the footage that contains the victim’s own statements (§ 9403(5)). Storage and dissemination were already covered.
For officers: Victims may review the part of your camera footage that records their own statements.
Council on Police Training becomes the POST Commission, with mandatory suspension and revocation and public decision summaries
The Council is renamed the Police Officer Standards and Training Commission and grows to 17 members. Three public members (a religious leader with reentry experience and two people directly affected by the justice system) may not be current or former law enforcement. The Commission “shall do all of the following”; the Council “may” act. New grounds for suspension or revocation are a certificate issued by mistake, probation before judgment, and decertification in another jurisdiction, and the “misdemeanor involving moral turpitude” ground is dropped. The training, psychological, fraud, and discharge-after-hearing grounds predate the act. The Commission gains subpoena power and must publish decision summaries on its website as public records. It must require police accountability committees or boards and ensure every agency is accredited by July 1, 2028. The 2022 body-worn camera rulemaking mandate is replaced by a duty to review the camera regulations periodically (§ 8404(c)). Administration moves from the State Police to the Department of Safety and Homeland Security.
For officers: POST must suspend or revoke on the listed grounds, including decertification in another state, and its decisions are published.
Officers’ bill of rights rewritten: misconduct narratives, Brady disclosure, and record sharing with future employers
Chapter 92 is renamed Police Officers’ Due Process, Accountability, and Transparency and now covers part-time officers. Investigations must be completed even if the officer leaves, and sustained findings must be reported to the Council on Police Training, now POST. The rule that all records “shall be and remain confidential” is replaced by an exceptions-based rule, and bargaining terms extending confidentiality beyond the chapter are void. Agencies must send narratives to the Criminal Justice Council for shootings at persons, force causing serious physical injury, and sustained findings of sexual assault or harassment, dishonesty, or domestic violence. Narratives must leave out victim and witness identities; the officer’s name may be withheld in a domestic violence case where it would identify the victim. On a defendant’s request, the Department of Justice must disclose sustained findings of perjury, witness tampering, false statements or reports, or evidence tampering by officers in the case, and some pending dishonesty allegations. Every new hire must sign an agreement allowing records to be shared with future hiring agencies. The hearing deadline changes from 30 to 45 days.
For officers: A sustained finding goes to POST, can reach defendants in your cases, and follows you to your next agency.
Not yet in force and pending
- Juvenile Civil Citation training (HB 220): 85 Del. Laws c. 140, signed August 20, 2025, takes effect 18 months after enactment; the Delaware Code shows amended § 8404 as effective February 20, 2027. POST’s in-service standards must then include training on the Juvenile Civil Citation program, alongside the existing sexual-assault training requirement. 85 Del. Laws c. 140
These bills were not enacted: HB 366 (2026, officer face coverings) and HB 367 (2026, display of agency and name or badge number), both stricken May 21, 2026; and HB 412 (152nd General Assembly, officer privacy), which remained in House Judiciary.
Regulation 801 § 19.2.3 allows an appeal to Superior Court “within 15 business days,” but § 8404A(3) says “within 15 days.” The regulation still names the Council on Police Training and omits the duty to publish decision summaries. The regulations site could not be read by machine, so the Regulation 801 details above were confirmed against a February 2025 archived copy of the official page.
Checked and unchanged
- Regulation 801 (minimum standards and the § 19 decertification hearing procedure): no amendment to officer standards found after 26 DE Reg. 222 (September 1, 2022). The 27 DE Reg. 615 and 617 amendments (February 1, 2024) concern instructor certification only.
- Not counted, technical: 84 Del. Laws c. 42 (2023, gender-neutral language), c. 233 (2023), and c. 514 (2024); 85 Del. Laws c. 303 (2026, juvenile probation officer terms in § 9200); and 85 Del. Laws c. 518, which renames the Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement in §§ 8401 and 9200.
- Not counted: HB 68 (2023) only clarified the 4-year look-back for training-cost reimbursement between agencies (§ 8409).
- Not counted: HB 182 (2025), HS 2 for HB 94, and HS 1 for HB 368 (2026) limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. They do not address certification, decertification, or officer identification.
Last updated October 20, 2026Source: United States Council for Law & InvestigationCite as: United States Council for Law & Investigation, “Delaware officer certification: Officer Ledger,” uscli.org/officer-certification-tracker/delaware (last updated October 20, 2026). Text licensed CC BY 4.0.