Town Council Gets Update on Police Department Activities

By DAVID QUESENBERRY

Patriot Publishing 

The past year was busy for the Pulaski Police Department, according to its new chief William Kelly who briefed Town Council at its meeting Tuesday night.

Chief Kelly provided Council with an overview of operations for 2025, which included a “snapshot” of the department and listed priorities he has for the department in the future.

Describing 2025 as “a busy year for us,” Chief Kelly said the department was dispatched to 3,700 calls for service. Some of the more common calls for service included suspicious persons, suspicious vehicles, and calls concerning disturbances, fights, disorderly conduct and the like. The most frequent incidents the department dealt with were trespassings, larcenies, burglaries and frauds. A common but less frequent call was for vandalism.

Last year the department responded to 113 calls concerning persons in need of mental health services. Chief Kelly explained that while these calls for mental health services were not that frequent, they tended to last for a longer time up to several days, since the person had to be evaluated and transported to a medical facility.

Last year, Chief Kelly said officers voluntarily “self-initiated” investigatory or patrol actions 23,000 times and conducted 1,900 traffic stops.

Overall, he said, department personnel were involved in 31,000 total events in the Town last year which averaged 17 incidents per officer each shift.

“Our patrol officers are very busy running out there handling calls and proactively going out and finding ways to bring public safety to the area,” he said.

Concerning enforcement actions, the department made 843 arrests and filed 1,500 charges. For traffic enforcement, 1,400 traffic summonses were issued as well as 800 warnings. Officers were involved in 33 fights with suspects.

“This was 33 times,” Kelly said, “our officers had to use force to defend themselves, effect an arrest, or defend the public.”

Crime data for last year was classified according to the FBI’s system. Category A, Kelly explained were the more serious offenses such as homicide, for which the Town recorded one last year, although it was ruled by the Commonwealth as justified. Other offenses recorded under this category were 42 aggravated assaults; 9 rapes; 4 robberies; 74 burglaries; 183 incidents of theft, and 9 stolen vehicles.

Category B offenses, considered less serious under the FBI’s system, consisted of 107 vandalism reports; 171 narcotic incidents; 103 simple assaults, and 130 trespassing incidents.

Detectives in the Investigations Division were assigned 216 cases last year. The Narcotics Unit was, Kelly said, “equally busy” serving search warrants, making arrests, and seizing money and drugs.

Several cases were solved regarding child molestation; child pornography; death investigation; stolen vehicles and weapons, and elder abuse.

Chief Kelly went on to say that the Pulaski Police Department has the best training of any nearby jurisdiction. Although some training is required by the state, officers are encouraged to go out and find elective training that suits their needs. Officers then bring this specialized training back where they train the rest of the department. Examples of specialized training included a forensic academy; narcotics investigation; and drone training and applications.

Regarding staff, Chief Kelly said the department was at an authorized strength of 30 officers and were two officers down. Two trainees were in the academy and two officers were on light duty under FMLA. Patrol was staffed with 4 platoons each with three officers who work a 12-hour on 12-hour off rotating work schedule.

For the future, Chief Kelly said retention of current officers was priority number one. Another goal was to use data driven prioritization to highlight problem areas and direct officers to those areas. His final goal was to work with stakeholders in the community such as businesses or disadvantaged residents to improve quality of life.

Council also heard an update on “Project Revitalize” from Shannon Ainsley, Economic Developer. Ainsley, using actual costs from a project home, showed Council the benefit of revitalizing blighted properties. The home, having been vacant for ten years had accrued $3,900 in back taxes; $10,000 in liens for mowing and securing the property; $4,000 in attorney’s fees; and projected demolition costs of $18,000. The average annual loss to the Town was $3,590.

Ainsley said it was costly to revitalize a property. However, if the property were sold and the sale price covered expenses, the cost to the Town would be zero. To revitalize this property would cost $18,000 for demolition; $208,000 for construction of a new home; and $22,000 in sales costs for a total of $248,000. If the property were sold for $248,000 there would be no cost to the Town. She estimated revitalization of the property would result in $650 in improved property tax value; $225 in estimated property taxes; and $182 in additional sales tax revenue if $50 were spent on meals in the Town.

In all the revitalized property could contribute $1,057 back into the economy. Over the ten-year period, blight cost the Town $35,900 while revitalization brought in $10,570 to the local economy.

Ainsley said the project is still moving forward and that the Town is working with several developers on revitalizing several properties. The goal of Project Revitalize was to restore properties to a state where they would be contributing to the community.

Council posed several questions, one of which was how it was decided which contractor would build a new dwelling following demolition of an earlier structure.

Town Manager Todd Day said there had been interest expressed by several persons, but only two contractors were able to sustain the $250,000 up front cost to build and sell a dwelling. Day stressed the Town was trying to stay away from using tax dollars to build homes.

In recognition of Black History Month, Council heard a presentation from Dr. Michael Hickman on little known narratives and perspectives concerning the black community in Pulaski County.

Dr. Hickman reviewed several historical accounts of the black community from the early years of the county. He also described the emergence of black culture and identity as black citizens embraced their heritage and created their modern culture with its unique language, dress and identity.

In other actions, Council appointed Greg East to a five-year term on the Board of Zoning appeals. It also approved a resolution affirming the Town’s commitment to fund its local share of projects with the Virginia Department of Transportation.

The next scheduled meeting of the Pulaski Town Council will be at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3, 2026 in the Council Chambers at the Town Municipal Building at 42 First Street N.W.