News Room

News Release

	Contact:
September 29, 2008	Mark S. Cox, APR Director of Public Communications 382-6241 (WK)
	-- or --
For immediate release	Heath E. Covey Public Information Coordinator 382-6241 (WK)

POLICE CHIEF ANNOUNCES DEPARTMENT PROMOTIONS

CHESAPEAKE- Police Chief Kelvin Wright will promote several department members during a ceremony on Friday, October 3, at 2:00 p.m., in the City Council Chambers in City Hall. Major Mark Solesky will be appointed to a new Deputy Chief position. Captains Tracy Branch, Timothy Breslin and Tony Torres will be appointed to the rank of Major and are joining the department’s police command team. Lieutenants Timothy May and Edward McIntyre will be promoted to the rank of Captain, and Detective Sergeant Troy Lindsey will be promoted to the rank of Lieutenant.

“Since Chief Wright assumed the position of chief last April, several improvements in the department’s operations have already occurred,” said City Manager William Harrell. “These promotions continue the momentum that we’ve seen in the police department in recent months.”

With 22 years of service, Deputy Chief Solesky has been a member of the department’s executive command staff. In his new role, Deputy Chief Solesky will oversee criminal investigations, patrol operations, special operations and community policing functions. For the last three years he has overseen the operations bureau where he has provided leadership to coordinate the activities of the City’s five police precincts.He will work closely with Chief Wright and Deputy Chief Louis Tayon to provide leadership and direction to all department commands in an effort to operationalize the department’s community and problem-oriented policing strategies.

“Deputy Chief Solesky brings experience, knowledge and a commitment to ensuring the effective delivery of police services to the citizens of Chesapeake,” said Chief Wright.

This additional Deputy Chief position was recommended in the recent Carroll Buracker and Associates, Inc., Management and Staffing Study of the Department’s operations and is the initial step in the department’s
re-organization.   

Both Captains Branch and Torres have implemented successful community policing initiatives at the precinct level resulting in greater citizen-police partnerships, increased community awareness of crime and public disorder, as well as increased police responsiveness to social issues that are associated with criminal activity. Captain Breslin has been instrumental in ensuring the support function of the department has remained responsive to the needs of the officers on the street by ensuring that their technology, communication and equipment needs are met and allowing them to focus on the needs of the community.

As members of the department’s Command Staff, Lieutenants May and McIntyre, and Sergeant Lindsey will be responsible for leading, managing and directing their personnel toward the accomplishment of the department’s goals and objectives.

With these promotions, the department is planning to have the new management team visit the various civic league and neighborhood meetings over the next several months to talk with members of the community to learn more about how the department and the community can work together to make Chesapeake a safer city.

These promotions will help to meet the department’s short-term goal of a structural re-organization designed to improve leadership and management at all levels and greater efficiency and effectiveness department-wide.

They are also key elements in the more effective deployment of resources to address emerging crime trends, to enhance responses to the needs of the community, and to further reduce crime in every sector of the city.

• Read extended biographies of those promoted
• Photograph of Deputy Chief of Police, Mark Solesky
• Photograph of Major Tracy Branch
• Photograph of Major Tim Breslin
• Photograph of Major Tony Torres
• Photograph of Lieutenant Troy Lindsey
• Photograph of Captain Tim May
• Photograph of Captain Ed McIntyre