‘Policing is kind of cerebral now’

By Kip Tabb | Outer Banks Voice on August 16, 2023

Michael Palkovics discusses his new role as Kitty Hawk Police Chief

Kitty Hawk Police Chief Michael Palkovics.

After 30 years of experience working for the Henrico County, VA Police Department, Kitty Hawk’s new Police Chief Michael Palkovics knows what his first task is on the Outer Banks.

“My first priority is to learn as much as I can about the department—their current policies and practices, learn about the community and find out what it is the community wants and expects,” he said. “It’s a steep learning curve.”

Palkovics was announced as the Kitty Hawk’s new Chief of Police on June 30, succeeding retiring Chief Joel Johnson, who had served in that post for more than a decade. Not long after, on Aug. 7, he held a public meet-and-greet with Kitty Hawk residents, an event that left him impressed with how they feel about their town.

“One of the things that I have really noticed is the people that live here are very well informed, and they’re very invested in the community and I don’t mean financially,” he said. “They are invested in the interests of the town and making sure that it [is] representative what they feel the town should be.”

He retired from the Henrico County Police Department as Lieutenant Colonel Michael Palkovics, Assistant Chief of Police, Support Operations, a job that he describes as “24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

“I retired to take this job,” he told the Voice. “I was looking for a little bit different pace…And the opportunity came up…My wife and I have been coming down here for years…I talked to her about it, got her feelings and…she was very supportive of the change.”

The Henrico County Police Department, which includes the city of Richmond, has, according to Palkovics, almost 700 police officers and around 250 support employees “Just my command was probably 250 people,” he said.

That’s far different than the town of Kitty Hawk, with 16 police department employees and two vacant positions. For Palkovics, it’s forcing him out of the office and back to his roots in policing.

“It’s different work,” he said. “It’s not putting out fires 24 hours. This is getting back for me to what policing was when I first started. The real true sense of community policing, getting to know the people in the area and trying to do things that makes an impact or positively impact the people that live and work in the area on a much smaller scale instead of massive, huge projects.”

Palkovics also stressed the vital role the community plays in public safety.

“A police officer has two sets of eyes, two hands and two legs. And you can only do so much,” he said. “The community are the ones that make the impact. Because they’re the voice. They’re the knowledge. They’re the eyes. They’re what’s going on. So it is forging that partnership and working with the community together to make an area safe.”

The new chief also lauds the officers he now leads in Kitty Hawk. “The people that we have here, the men and women and it’s a young department, have a tremendous amount of pride in what they’re doing. And I’ve been very impressed with the team concept, which is huge,” Palkovics said, citing in particular Lt. James Helms, who served as Interim Chief after Johnson retired.

“Not only was he doing a great job serving as the interim chief, from the day that I accepted the position, he has been working with me on everything, and really becoming a friend,” he said.

One new aspect of Palkovics’ job will be the new Kitty Hawk Police Station, where ground was broken last fall, and which is currently under construction next to the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau Welcome Center. The new station will replace the old building on West Kitty Hawk Road, which has been plagued by flooding problems.

“Everybody that crosses the bridge, everybody going south is going to drive right by it. It’s just going be a building that the whole town can get behind and feel really represents them,” he said. “There will be a top-tier premier police department working out of it.”

Having come from an accredited law enforcement agency at the Henrico Police Department, Palkovics talks about the goal getting accreditation for the Kitty Hawk force—a voluntary process in which the agencies adopt standards and practices, one that involves an independent review by the accrediting agency.

“What that means is that you have put policies and practices in place that somebody else from the outside is coming in and looking at and saying you are following the best practices for law enforcement, which builds credibility. But it also builds a good foundation for the men and women working there,” Palkovics said.

“Agencies that are not accredited, it doesn’t mean they’re not doing [things right],” he added. “They just haven’t been exposed to the accreditation.” There is a North Carolina Law Enforcement Accreditation operated through the attorney general’s office, and “I think that’s something down the road to look at, is how can we move in that direction,” he noted.

The chief also said he will be emphasizing ongoing training.

“Every agency that you can think of that you would say is successful, I can guarantee you has a very robust training program,” he said. “These are perishable skills. You have to keep practicing them, especially in a smaller community where you don’t have the opportunity to use them as much.”

Speaking from his 30 years of experience, Palkovics suggests that one of the most important parts of good police work these days is thinking about how to do the job more effectively.

“Policing is…kind of cerebral now,” he observed. “You have to look at things from many different angles, to make sure that you really are doing what is right. It takes a lot of introspection.”

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