CHAPTER 246
AMENDING CHARTER OF NEW CASTLE
AN ACT AMENDING THE CHARTER OF THE CITY OF NEW CASTLE BY PLACING THE APPOINTMENT AND OPERATION OF POLICE CONSTABLES UNDER THE JURISDICTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL, BY REQUIRING THE MAYOR TO BE A BONA FIDE OWNER OF PROPERTY WITHIN THE CITY LIMITS AND TO GIVE THE MAYOR AUTHORITY TO PRESCRIBE THE SAME PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMINAL VIOLATIONS AS MAY BE PRESCRIBED BY JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Delaware (two-thirds of each Branch thereof concurring therein):
Section 1. § 13 of the Charter of the City of New Castle, 27 Delaware Laws, Chapter 216, is amended to read as follows:
Section 13. The City Council shall annually appoint a suitable number of police constables for said City, and shall have power to supply by new appointment all vacancies that may occur, and for good and sufficient cause may remove or suspend any police constable from office. The City Council shall appoint any number of special police constables to perform all the duties of police constables during any riot, breach of the peace, or other emergency or occasion for which the permanent police force is not adequate, and shall have authority to call upon the sheriff of New Castle County at all times to assist in preserving the peace of the City.
Section 2. § 14 of the Charter of the City of New Castle, 27 Delaware Laws, Chapter 216, is amended to read as follows:
Section 14. The police constables and special police constables so appointed shall carry into effect the ordinances of the City and laws of the State, and shall be under the exclusive direction and control of the City Council. They shall have, within said City, the same powers as are possessed by the constables of the County of New Castle, and are hereby
declared conservators of the peace within the limits of said City, and they may pursue and arrest beyond the limits of the City any violator of the laws or ordinances of the City.
Section 3. § 3 of the Charter of the City of New Castle, 27 Delaware Laws, Chapter 216, as amended, is further amended by adding at the end of said Section the following sentence:
Commencing at the municipal election to be held in 1959 no person shall be elected to hold the office of Mayor who is not a bona fide holder of a freehold interest in real estate within the limits of the city.
Section 4. § 10 of the Charter of the City of New Castle, 27 Delaware Laws, Chapter 216, is amended by striking therefrom the phrase--
and provided further, that he shall not impose any fine exceeding twenty dollars, nor imprison for a longer term than thirty days, and by striking therefrom the word "thus" as it last appears in said Section 10.
Approved July 22, 1957.