Morris County police chiefs accuse Dover officials of ‘weaponizing’ internal affairs; Mayor Dodd fires back
DOVER, N.J. (Morris County) — The Morris County Police Chiefs Association has issued a sharp rebuke of Dover Mayor James P. Dodd and Business Administrator Edward Ramirez, accusing them of weaponizing the internal affairs process against Police Chief Jonathan Delaney and creating a hostile atmosphere in the department.
In a Sept. 24 letter sent to Dover officials and residents, the Association alleged a “coordinated and systematic” campaign to discredit Delaney.
“Please find this correspondence a rebuke of the Mayor and Business Administrator’s coordinated and systematic attempts to not only weaponize the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General’s Internal Affairs Policy and Procedures against Chief Jonathan Delaney, but to also create a false narrative in an effort to mislead the residents of Dover, while creating a hostile work environment for all Dover Police personnel,” the letter stated.
The Association, representing 35 Morris County police chiefs, said it has the “full backing and support of the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police” in condemning what it described as a slanderous campaign.
The chiefs also criticized a town-commissioned assessment of the police department by The Valori Group, calling it “biased and lacking in credible fact” and claiming it was written “to support predetermined conclusions about leadership, contracts, and governance rather than to provide a constructive roadmap for improvement.”
The report, the Association wrote, was “slanted, incomplete, and politically charged,” with “factual errors [that] materially distort the report’s findings on staffing, overtime, and governance.”
But on Friday, Sept. 26, Mayor Dodd fired back with a written statement defending the Valori report and accusing the chiefs of protecting their own interests at the expense of Dover residents.
“The Morris County Chiefs’ Association letter is a desperate attempt to protect a fraternal brother and a system that benefits the chiefs of police, often at the expense of taxpayers,” Dodd said. “Unlike these out-of-town Chiefs, I was elected to serve the people of Dover, who cannot afford a police department plagued by out-of-control overtime and mismanagement.”
Dodd pointed to what he described as unsustainable costs within the department. “While the average Dover resident earns just $31,000 a year, eleven Dover police officers each make more than $200,000, a lieutenant makes more than $300,000, and Chief Delaney’s total package, including benefits and a take-home car, approaches $400,000, making him one of the highest-paid public employees in New Jersey,” he said.
“That imbalance is simply not sustainable for a working-class town like Dover,” Dodd continued. “The Valori report was fact-driven and laid out the fiscal and structural problems in Dover’s current system. The Chiefs’ hostility is predictable; they have long opposed public safety directors because real oversight threatens their oversized contracts and power centers.”
He emphasized that his priority is protecting residents, not preserving police paychecks. “This is nothing more than a false narrative and conclusion. The people of Dover deserve fiscal responsibility, accountability, and safe neighborhoods, not political letters written to defend the status quo at the expense of residents,” Dodd said.
The controversy highlights an escalating clash between the mayor’s office and law enforcement leaders over the future of Dover’s police structure and spending.
