DBT40 Honoree: Brittanni Barnes – Delaware Business Times [Video]

Title: Sergeant

Workplace: Wilmington Police Department

Age: 35

Working as a public servant in Delaware’s largest city comes with a unique set of challenges that never sway Brittanni Barnes from doing her job as a sergeant with the Wilmington Police Department.

As the only Black woman in leadership at the department and in a male-dominated profession, she strives to serve as a role model by mentoring many of the Delawareans she’s met through nearly a decade serving on the force. She joined the department as a patrol officer in late 2014, earning a rank as corporal in 2018, senior corporal in 2021 and patrol division sergeant in 2023.

Barnes now works as an investigator in the department’s Office of Professional Standards, where she deals with everything from dress code violations to cases of police-involved shootings. Her role, which she has been in since late 2023, is integral to protecting both the public and …