New Urbana Chief of Police Patrick Connolly is not planning on any positions being cut in the police department, even after fiscal restraints in the Urbana City budget were made.

“The city council has recognized that police, fire and public works are all very important parts of the city,” Connolly said in response to the members of the city council freezing their wages Oct. 4.

Connolly began his new position almost two weeks ago. Former Urbana Chief of Police Mike Bily retired Sept. 23.

Connolly began as a patrolman in 1988 and later moved on to serve a year within the Narcotics Department and as a criminal investigator before being promoted to a Sergeant Patrolman. He received the rank of Lieutenant after overseeing both the patrolman and detective divisions as a sergeant. He then oversaw the same two divisions as a Lieutenant before becoming the assistant chief under Bily in 2006.

Lt. Bryant Seraphin, current head of the Investigations Department, said he was only a new patrolman on the midnight shift when Connolly first commanded that division as a freshly promoted Sergeant.

“[Connolly] brings a great amount of knowledge and background to the force, with a lot of his focus in his investigative work,” Seraphin said.

After being nominated twice for the Urbana Officer of the Year award, Connolly received his first Commendation for Outstanding Performance award for solving a double-homicide. He received his second after the 2005 NCAA Final Four tournament while commanding the Mobile Task Force team that controlled celebratory violence after the event.

“I attribute 99 percent of our success to the fact that the students here were outstanding,” Connolly said.

While Connolly hasn’t been able to add more officers to his department due to the budget restraints from the Urbana city council, he added that public safety is still well maintained by the excellent collaboration between the other two police departments within the Champaign-Urbana, the University Police Department and Champaign City Police Department. He said their officers should wear “one of each patch” on both shoulders while on patrol.

Jeffrey Christensen, deputy chief of the University Police Department, agreed with Connolly’s opinion and said the Urbana City officers are “very fortunate, because historically we’ve had a very established and effective, working relationship with the agencies and where jurisdiction overlaps.”

Connolly’s position of assistant chief was filled in by Anthony Cobb, former Patrol Division commander, on Sept. 23, the Connolly’s first day as the leading commander in Urbana.