By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

Longtime Pelham police officer Larry Palmer said he will take a more direct role in operating the department after he recently was named the city’s first deputy police chief.

“I’m tickled to death they gave me the chance to do this,” Palmer said during a Jan. 2 interview. “I will be doing a lot of what I did as captain, but I will take more of a role in running the department day-to-day and helping Chief (Tommy) Thomas.”

Palmer, who has been working at the Pelham Police Department for more than 27 years, was promoted from captain to deputy chief during a Dec. 18 promotion ceremony at the department.

“I can’t say thank you enough to the people who have helped me over the years,” Palmer said. “This means the world to me.”

The deputy chief position – along with four new officer positions and other upgrades such as new Chevrolet Tahoe police cruisers and digital information boards – were funded in Pelham’s 2014 fiscal year budget.

Palmer said the department, which currently has 71 sworn police officers, is working to fill the vacated captain position quickly.

On Jan. 2, Palmer praised the city’s officers for their willingness to take on extra duties during hard economic times over the past few years.

“We don’t ever want to cut services, no matter what. But we did tighten our belt in other areas,” Palmer said, noting officers readily took on more work last year to ensure a full-time officer was stationed at each Pelham school following the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. “I was real proud of these guys for doing that. They sucked it up and took on extra duties to make that happen.”