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Campbell welcomes new police chief
CAMPBELL
The city of Campbell welcomed a new police chief during a session of the Campbell Municipal Court on Monday morning.
Patrick Kelly, a retired Youngstown police officer with 28 years of law-enforcement experience, was sworn in Monday morning.
“Right now, I don’t know how to be a chief, but I do know a lot about being a police officer, so I’m going to focus on learning about the job and the city,” Kelly said. “It’s like working a new beat – I need to spend time to figure it all out.”
During his time with Youngstown Police Department, Kelly spent more than 12 years working in the homicide division and worked for five years as a commander in the department’s street-crime unit and the Northeast Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force.
Kelly also spent 25 years working as a school security officer. He spent portions of his career working as a community officer, a street patrolman and in the YPD’s domestic-violence department.
Kelly will receive the same salary as the prior chief, $48,500 annually.
Mayor Nick Phillips said he was optimistic about the new hire.
“Mr. Kelly is a great choice. He’s extremely qualified, and he has a love for police work. He’ll be a great addition to our team,” Phillips said.
The incoming chief will fill the position left open by former chief Dennis Puskarcik, who resigned in January after allegations he had improperly accessed the department’s evidence lockers.
An internal investigation found no evidence to support the claims.
The officer who made the claims against Puskarcik was put on 10-day leave without pay after an internal investigation into her allegations that found her “insubordinate” and “negligent” in the way she chose to make complaints about her superior.
“As far as what happened in the past, that’s the past,” Kelly said. “I want to fix what needs fixing and leave alone everything that’s working.”
Phillips said initially the city planned to promote internally, which likely would have resulted in acting police Chief Kevin Sferra taking over permanently.
However, the mayor, the city law director and the police union could not reach an agreement on issues surrounding Sferra’s reclassification from a civil-service position to an unclassified position, and an external candidate was sought as a result.
Kelly began serving in his official capacity as chief Monday after the swearing-in ceremony.