After nearly seven years as police chief, Jerry Stokes has announced he will retire as of Dec. 31, and he hopes that the city he has grown to love will remember him well.

During his tenure, Stokes has brought the city’s violent crime in 2019 and 2020 to a 20-year-low as part of his community policing efforts, and in enacting those community policing goals, he grew to think of the city as home.

 

Prior to joining Salisbury, he was deputy chief in Lynchburg, Virginia, where he had worked for 32 years.

“I commend Chief Stokes for nearly 40 years of dedicated and professional service in local government law enforcement,” said Salisbury City Manager Jim Greene. “He is an effective leader, and in the six-plus years of serving as police chief, he has built an excellent team, introduced new technology, and helped make Salisbury a safer community. I thank Chief Stokes for his commitment to our community and our police department.”

“After more than six years as the chief of the Salisbury Police Department, I can truly say that my time here has been the pinnacle of a long career and the most satisfying time in my service as a police officer,” Stokes said. “I am grateful to former City Manager Lane Bailey for giving me the opportunity to serve this wonderful community as chief. I have built a number of relationships with many people in the Salisbury area law enforcement profession and community that will forever remain a valued part of my time here. I have found the officers who serve the Salisbury Police Department to be the most professional and dedicated group I have ever had the pleasure to meet. I will miss their camaraderie and friendship. I am certain they have the strength to continue providing Salisbury honorable service and feel the future for Salisbury Police Department is a bright one. My hope is that it will be said of my time here ‘well done good and faithful servant.’”

Greene has named Deputy Chief Brian Stallings as interim police chief, effective Sunday, Jan. 1, 2023.

“I appreciate Brian Stallings’s willingness to serve as interim police chief beginning Jan. 1,” added Greene. “Brian currently serves as deputy police chief and has been with Salisbury Police Department since 1996. I am confident that Deputy Chief Stallings will continue to provide leadership and support for the department and community.”

When he was hired, Stokes made it clear that community policing, including building a trusting relationship with the city’s residents, was his top priority. His initial comments in 2016 were an indication of where he intended to take the department.

“Our measures of success will not be numbers of arrest. Our measures of success will not be numbers of traffic citations we issue,” he said. “Our measures of success will be the reduction of crime, fear and disorder in the Salisbury community as partners with those living in and around our neighborhoods.”

Stokes was directly responsible for a number of initiatives that assisted in the city’s 20-year-low in violent crime, including:

• Submitting SPD into a federal gun crime reduction program, and securing federal grant funds to assist in crime reduction strategies;
• Enhancing the SPD training program and developing staff skills to meet the challenges of modern law enforcement in areas such as de-escalation, fair and bias-free policing, cultural awareness, basic police officer skills, and leadership development;
• Enhancing the SPD community policing and problem-solving efforts by building relationships within the community, including the NAACP Cease Fire, Chief’s Advisory Board, Salisbury Police Foundation, Cultivating Community Conversations and others.

When Stokes was first hired in 1984 in Virginia, he said he told the interview panel that he wanted to be a patrol officer for the rest of his life.

“It just seemed like the greatest thing in the world,”he said. Over time, he began to see other opportunities, and when he was promoted to detective after seven years, which was unheard of at the time, he began to see he could, just maybe, do more.

“Every time I moved up to the next level, I started thinking well, maybe I can do the next job,” and he not only could, but did. When he reached the deputy chief level, he did throw his hat in the ring for chief, but for the first time, fell short.

“I mean, it hurt my feelings a little bit, but in truth, it was probably for the best, because I would have wanted to make changes,” he said. Changes his former department may not have been ready to make. So he brought his ideas, his passion for community policing, and his commitment to connecting with the residents he has sworn to protect to Salisbury.

Making the decision to leave seemed natural at this time, but that did not make it easy, said Stokes.

“Sometimes you just know, but I’m going to miss everyone here,” he said. “I hope people know that I truly care about this community. I came from outside, but it has become home.” He said he makes no promises that he will not be calling to check in from time to time as well.

“I’ve told people that I may be back next year for the Cheerwine festival, but I’ll be at the beer tent,” he said. Stokes’ sense of humor has been one of the things that has lightened the load of a career in law enforcement, which he notes is not easy for the officer or his or her family.

“Being a law enforcement family is difficult in and of itself,” he said. “There is a lot of time commitment away from home, and my wife will tell you, it’s even harder to be a chief’s wife.”

Stokes said his family — his wife, Zoé, and three children, TJ, 30, Taylor, 26, and James, 18 — are what he is most proud of personally, and he believes his children are “all proud of what I have accomplished. I hope they would also say I’m a good dad.”

As for his work, he is most proud of what he has been able to do.

“When I first came here, people asked me if I could do something about the shootings,” he said. “I think we have. Now they ask if we can do something about the breaking into cars.”

His last day officially is Dec. 31, but because that falls on a Saturday, and because the city may have Friday the 30th designated as the new year’s holiday, he may be on the road to Virginia on Dec. 29. He has several irons in the fire in terms of post-retirement work, “because I applied to be a house husband but was denied,” but it will likely be part-time. Which means he will have time, at least once in a while, to come visit the city that became his second home.

 A comprehensive search for a new permanent police chief will begin in early 2023, following engagement sessions with officers, community members and staff.