by Elisabeth Strillacci

SALISBURY — Retiring Deputy Police Chief Brian Stallings has spent nearly 30 years with the department, and in that time, no one has ever had a bad thing to say about him.

For someone in law enforcement, that’s a challenge, but at a luncheon in his honor on his departure Tuesday, hosted by the Salisbury Police Foundation, Mayor Tamara Sheffield was not at all surprised.

“Brian is one of the kindest human beings I have ever met,” she said. “He has so faithfully served this town and its citizens, and done it with such heart. It’s a big loss.”

“Chief Stallings has always been a man who makes sure every different part of the community is heard,” said foundation member and NAACP President Gemale Black. “Back when we were first starting the Cease Fire initiative, which has become Operation Think, he was always at the meetings, always listening, participating. He would also respond, tell us what he thought, and even if we didn’t agree, we were not just heard but listened to. And that has been a hallmark of my experience with him.”

Black recalled a Salisbury City Council meeting that took place during one of Stallings’ two tenures as acting police chief.

“The city was dealing with a rise in crime and he was speaking to the council,” Black said. “And then, he turned around, facing the residents at the meeting, and publicly made a personal apology to everyone. He took it very seriously, very personally, even though he himself was not personally to blame. He told the public that he was sorry they were having to go through this, and promised that things would get better. Usually a chief will talk to the council, but he turned and talked to the people of the community that he and officers work for. And that just blew me away.”

Sheffield said the town had tried to convince Stallings to apply for the chief’s job, but he quietly insisted that it was not in his plans.

Stallings declined an interview with the Post on his retirement, and Chief Patrick PJ Smith said he tried to honor Stallings’ request for no fanfare.

“But the foundation told me they were doing this, so it kinda took it out of both of our hands,” he said. “And I’m a little glad, because he deserves recognition.”

Smith and Stallings have worked together Smith’s entire career, and Smith said he will always carry a part of Stallings and what he taught the chief with him.

“And not just me,” Smith said. “From being my supervisor and teaching me, to working under me as his supervisor, he has always been there, to help, to guide and to support me, but he has also been there for any number of other officers. And they don’t just go into his office to get advice about work. They know they have a listening ear and a guide on life in general.”

Smith said Stallings’ retirement “is bittersweet, but what I want more than anything for him is to go enjoy his life and his family. He has always said the police department is his family, and I know it has been. But now it’s time for him to put that behind him and enjoy his personal family. He’s more than earned this.”

David Post, a council member who has known Stallings for many years, described the deputy chief as one of the “most caring people I know. And he has been liked, respected and welcome in every neighborhood in town. And that kind of reputation is rare indeed. We are going to miss him tremendously. He served as interim chief twice, and when we hired former Chief Jerry Stokes, there was a lot of concern about that transition, since Stokes was from outside. But Brian helped make that as smooth as possible. He’s an incredible man.”

Smith said Stallings “has to be the most humble person I have met. He has done this job not for awards, but because he is committed to doing what is right. This is a calling for him.”

Lt. Corey Brooks thanked Stallings for his support and friendship over the years, and the two hugged in an emotional moment, and City Manager Jim Greene promised Stallings that though he may be gone, his “legacy will live on.”

The foundation President, John Struzick, presented Stallings with a clock for his time on the department, and the organization gave him a shirt that read “My time in the uniform is over, but my watch never ends.”

Stallings, never one for the spotlight, simply thanked everyone for coming, including his wife, Pam, with whom he plans to travel, starting with a trip to Charleston and then Savannah, where their daughter lives.

“It’s been an honor and a privilege,” he said.