Coronado’s new top cop comes from an agency with over 2,600 officers, but he doesn’t intend to bring big-city policing to a small town. Instead, Police Chief Paul Connelly says he wants to be on a first-name basis with every employee in the city’s department.
“I (want to) get to know a little bit about each and every one of them,” Connelly says. “To me that’s how you build trust and relationships.”
Connelly has been a law officer for just under three decades, his whole career at the San Diego Police Department.
Coronado’s last police chief, Chuck Kaye, served for five years before retiring early this year. Before Connelly was sworn in on Dec. 9, Rick Martinez filled in as the department’s interim chief.
Connelly joined the Marine Corps after graduating college, moving on to pursue a career as a police officer and then even attending the FBI National Academy and graduating in 2019.
The Coronado News interviewed Connelly to learn more about his story and vision for a small-town Police Department with over 100 employees, including 44 sworn officers. The responses below have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: You were in the Marine Corps, correct? Can you explain that for me?
Connelly: I’ll just kind of go back a little further. My dad was an Air Force pilot, so I moved around quite a bit when I was a little kid, but I wound up in Pittsburgh in second grade. So I went to, you know, grade school, high school and college in Pittsburgh. And after college, I went to Officer Candidate School for the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia and I got stationed here at Camp Pendleton. So I kind of fell in love with San Diego. I met my wife out here and just never left.
And then when I got out of the Marine Corps, I had a job for about a year and a half in medical sales, but I always wanted to be a police officer, so I pursued that. And in 1997, I joined the San Diego Police Department.
Q: Was the plan always to be a police officer?
Connelly: After I got out of the Marine Corps … I kind of missed the camaraderie of the Marine Corps and the sense of purpose and serving the community. So I decided to pursue a childhood dream of being a police officer.
Q: Where does this dream come from?
Connelly: I just think growing up in a military family has always taught it was good to serve the community. The sense of service was always kind of instilled in me since I was a little kid.
Q: Why did you not continue that dream through the Marine Corps?
Connelly: I went into the Marine Corps with the mindset that I was only going to do four years because I thought it would be good to serve our country in that format, and then just wanted to see what the future had to offer after that.
Q: What was the biggest thing you took away from the FBI National Academy?
Connelly: I really think that the networking (was the biggest thing). Having friends now in different agencies across the country that if I have a need … I can give a call and we can share information.
Q: What is your biggest goal as chief of police in Coronado?
Connelly: Right now I’m spending my time getting to know everything I can about the Coronado Police Department, what their culture is, how they do things. I also want to spend a lot of time getting to know the Coronado community and how the Coronado Police Department can continue to best serve them.
I really want to focus internally after I get to know the community members, and focus on creating a new leadership team. We have some promotions we have to do. And I made a commitment to the officers to always hold myself and the Coronado Police Department to the highest moral, ethical and professional standards. I’m here to support them and I really want to make sure that they have all the training, equipment and support they need to do their jobs safely and effectively.
Q: Do you have anything that you want to bring from SDPD to Coronado?
Connelly: They’re two really different departments, right? I mean, San Diego Police Department is a massive department. There’s 2,600 employees. We work out of 11 different police facilities. So I certainly have a lot of experience from working in a big city that has a lot of things going on in regards to crime and community type events.
I really want to spend my time learning about Coronado Police Department, and I don’t want to turn Coronado Police Department into San Diego Police Department. I want to … take what experience I have to help make Coronado Police Department the best Coronado Police Department it can be.
One thing that really interests me is when you’re working at a big agency, it’s hard to get to know everyone, right? So I’m really excited to be working in one facility with a great team of men and women, both sworn and nonsworn, and I’m going to get to know all of them by their first names. And I (want to) get to know a little bit about each and every one of them. To me that’s how you build trust and relationships. And you know, I’m better able to lead them in the right direction. I can also get to know about who they are, what their goals are, and help them achieve their personal goals.
Q: Do you have any philosophies on community policing?
Connelly: I really want to focus on our officers continuing to treat everyone with dignity and respect and providing a kind of white glove service to the community members. And that involves engagement. I expect (it) from me all the way down to the lowest denominator in the department to really engage with community members, attend events, be approachable, engaged and be ready to help when they need it.
Q: Was there a police chief that you looked up to in your past?
Connelly: I’ve worked for a couple great bosses. You know, my former chief, I think one of the things that I admired about him is just, (he’s) very down to earth and approachable even though he’s chief of this major organization. He’s very easy to talk to. I think that’s important in a leader: You’ve got to be humble and you’ve got to be able to connect with the people who work for you.
Q: How do you view leadership?
Connelly: I think it’s important to set clear expectations to people, so they know what they should do and what they shouldn’t be doing, to communicate effectively with them, to hold them accountable to policies and procedures and what community expectations are and to support them and help them try to achieve their goals in their career.
