PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Police Chief Laurie Kelly is retiring from the Presque Isle Police Department where she has worked for 38 years.
Kelly, the city’s first female police chief, will work her last shift on Friday, Jan. 5. Applications to replace her were closed on Dec. 22, and the city council will select and appoint the next chief within 60 days, according to City Councilor Craig Green. Deputy Chief Chris Hayes will serve as interim police chief until a new chief is hired.
A native of Mapleton and a Presque Isle High School graduate, Kelly became the first female patrol officer for Presque Isle in 1986 after ending her military service as a linguist in the U.S. Army. After leaving the Army she discovered there were many parallels between the military and working as a police officer which made the job appealing.
“Law enforcement is very paramilitary,” Kelly said. “There’s a set of rules and regulations that you follow, like the way you dress in uniform.”
In 1997, Kelly was promoted from patrol officer to sergeant. She remembers one opportunity when she got to train new cadets at the Police Academy in Vassalboro for 20 weeks in 2005 and 2006. She describes her experience of ushering in new police officers as rewarding.
Kelly became the first woman to serve as police chief for the city starting in January 2019.
She was excited to take on the administrative role overseeing the department’s budget and making sure officers’ training was updated in accordance with the state’s guidelines.
For example, in 2022, Maine gave police officers mandated training on how to deal with people struggling with mental health issues and how to properly handle calls for a person experiencing homelessness.
“The state will set mandated policies and their training is different,” Kelly said. “So [the state] will say, ‘OK, this year’s mandated training deals with how you approach and deal with mental health and [people experiencing homelessness]’ because that is what is happening statewide.”
Over her career, technology has changed the way police work is done, Kelly said. She gave an example of the department using paper complaint cards for reporting crimes when she started but now the information is uploaded to computers and the data used for monthly police reports on crime statistics.
She believes the next line of technology to be widely adopted by the police will be unmanned aerial drones and robots used for high-risk calls such as a bomb threat that could preserve the life of a police dog.
After her last day as police chief, Kelly will take time for herself and her family but hasn’t come up with an immediate plan for what she will be doing in her retirement.
The people that Kelly started with on the force have all retired and she will leave the department with only three vacancies, which includes her position.
“Laurie has been a tremendous asset to the city, she has been an excellent role model for the other officers,” Green said. “Laurie stepped into the role when we were down five to seven officers at the time and really pulled the [police] department together.”
