Dover Town Council Promotes Three Detectives to Sergeant

The board also approved a local land sale and granted new food truck licenses.

Dover Police Chief Jonathan Delaney praised the department's three newest sergeants. (Photo/DOVERNOW)

The Dover Town Council approved the promotions of Dover Police Department detectives Samuel Berthoud, Joseph Dodd, and Joel Gotera to the rank of sergeant.

The decision was made following a 15-minute executive session at the end of the meeting, after which the legislation was read into the record. While the town council did not make a physical copy of the resolution available to the public, the legislation read into the record stated that the officers were recommended for promotion by Dover Chief of Police Jonathan Delaney.

An archived post from the Dover Police Department notes that Gotera was awarded “Investigator of the Year” in 2023 by the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation. In a 2016 report in “The Citizen,” he joined the department 10 years ago alongside five other officers. The town also honored Gotera with the Mayor’s Exceptional Duty

Award in 2017.

Berthoud is a veteran of the U.S. Army. Records from the Board of Aldermen (as the Town Council was known at the time) show he has been on the DPD since at least 2017; a resolution dated April 11, 2017, indicates that the board and Mayor James P. Dodd voted to increase his salary at that time.

Joseph Dodd has been a member of the Dover PD since at least 2016, according to meeting minutes from November of that year, when the Board of Aldermen authorized salary increases for him and 33 other officers.

Chief Delaney praised the newly promoted sergeants.

“Each of these officers has demonstrated dedication, professionalism, and a strong commitment to our community through their service as both patrol officers and detectives,” he said. “We look forward to their continued leadership and the positive impact they will have as first-line supervisors within the department.”

In other news:

• The council voted in May 2025 to hold exclusively virtual meetings following a perceived threat stemming from an incident involving a member of the audience dressed in a head-to-toe burqa. The council meetings returned to full in-person events in January. The meetings, which have moved from Zoom to broadcast via the town’s Facebook page, faced technical issues on April 14, where only the final 40 minutes, which included the public comment section, the 15-minute executive session, and the vote on the three promotions. The town has not yet posted the full meeting to its Facebook page.

• During the portion of the meeting that was not broadcast, the council voted on first reading to pass an ordinance authorizing the sale of four municipal-government-owned parcels on Ann Street, Crystal Street, and Munson Avenue. Each of the four parcels has an estimated assessed value between $125,000 and $145,500. 

• Council also voted to authorize four licenses for mobile retail food establishments – or food trucks, as most of us know them – before concluding the meeting.