Wilmington cop accused of rape once lauded as 'good community officer'

The Wilmington officer accused of raping a woman under threat of arrest was recognized by city officials in the past as an example of effective community policing. 

Cpl. Thomas Oliver was on a team of cops deployed to West Center City in 2017 as part of the mayor's plans to revive the neighborhood by cleaning it up, quieting it down and quelling violence there. His former lieutenant said he had to kick Oliver off that team.

"He just started to not want to participate in a lot of the day-to-day activities," said former Lt. Dan Selekman, who recently left the department over disagreements with the administration. "He distanced himself from it ... He just preferred to ride by himself."

But his removal from that unit wasn't because of problems Oliver had with the residents he'd sworn to serve, Selekman said. He said neighborhood residents liked Oliver. 

Selekman said Oliver was "a good community officer" welcomed by West Center City residents, but he was expelled from the unit because he wasn't acting like a team player.

Before that happened, Oliver and others on the West Center City team were working to improve the department's image there while also better policing the neighborhood. 

For example, Selekman, Oliver and other officers helped a down-on-their-luck West Center City couple find a home and crowdsourced their furniture through social media. 

Neighborhood residents noticed that kind of work, and the team was highly praised.

"There are so many Dan Selekmans and Cpl. Olivers out there," Wilmington's Police Chief Robert Tracy told The News Journal in a story published a year before the alleged rape. "I don't want this to get lost. This is what we are supposed to be doing, and I'm happy to see this type of feedback."

That was before the rape, extortion and official misconduct charges filed against Oliver.

Wilmington police said it was mid-October when Oliver, driving his marked police vehicle, pulled up alongside a woman walking on East Ninth Street and instructed her to get into his passenger seat. He said he'd arrest her on an outstanding warrant if she didn't perform oral sex, and Oliver let her leave after she did, court documents said.

A city police spokesman Wednesday wouldn't answer questions about Oliver's history.

Community relations are a linchpin of crime reduction strategies implemented by Tracy, who was hired in April 2017. After Oliver's arrest, Tracy's comments on department integrity were included in a news release. 

“Wilmingtonians deserve the best in their law enforcement officers,” Tracy said in the release. “We will not allow the actions of one officer to erode the efforts of the rest of this department, or the progress we have made in building connections with the community.”

Selekman said he chose Oliver for the West Center City team because the corporal had been part of the city's original community policing unit, which by then was disbanded.

Selekman said Oliver did well in the community, occasionally displaying sleight-of-hand magic tricks for residents and, once, letting neighborhood kids braid his hair. 

Oliver's former boss was shocked by the reports.

"There was nothing that would have indicated to me anything that would have lent itself to this in any way," Selekman said. "This is like a whole different level."

Wilmington police suspended Oliver after learning of the rape allegations, a city police spokesman said in a news release. He wouldn't say Wednesday if Oliver has been fired.

Oliver is an 11-year veteran of the city police department. His work in West Center City wasn't the first time a city official applauded his efforts to improve community relations.

Former City Councilman Nnamdi Chukwuocha snapped a picture of Oliver, another officer and five Wilmington kids playing basketball on the Helen Chambers Park courts in August 2012. Community policing was a citywide buzzword at the time, and the moment caught the councilman's attention. Chukwuocha called it "the perfect picture." 

Chukwuocha circulated the picture. 

Hanifa Shabazz, a councilwoman then and now the body's president, said the picture "is worth a thousand words that we are moving toward ... some healing in our community." 

In the basketball court photo, Oliver was following the directives of then-Police Chief Michael Szczerba, who'd instructed his officers to spend more time with members of the community between their normal patrols. It was Oliver's sixth year on the force. 

"It's, of course, disheartening," Chukwuocha said Wednesday about the accusations.

The former councilman said he doesn't know Oliver and didn't interact with him when he took the photo, but he remembered the moment and the emphasis on community policing in the city at the time. Oliver's alleged actions, he said, shouldn't color the work of other officers or residents' faith that Wilmington police genuinely want to serve them.

"We have great officers. This is a sad example," Chukwuocha said.

Oliver's name has appeared several times in news releases issued by the Wilmington Police Department, usually in descriptions of arrests which named him as an investigating officer. 

• In January 2011, Oliver was one of the officers who pulled over a man on E. 24th Street and reportedly found crack cocaine and a loaded handgun on his person.
• In February 2011, Oliver chased a 16-year-old and caught him with a weapon. It was only hours after a fatal shooting for which he later was charged.
• In February 2016, Oliver was named as one of the officers who found two teens with firearms in the city, one of which had been reported stolen.

Contact Adam Duvernay at (302) 319-1855 or aduvernay@delawareonline.com

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