CHESAPEAKE, Va. - — There's something special about serving the city that shaped you.
"I've been here my whole life so I'm definitely invested in being here," said Chesapeake's Deputy Chief of Police, Tracy Branch.
Chesapeake is where Branch was born, went to school, and was raised by his grandmother after his parents died.
"I kind of got into law enforcement, because my father was a U.S. Customs Agent and I always looked up to him," said Branch. "He died when I was seven, but a lot of the memories of him were passed down. [I saw] a lot of pictures of him in uniform."
Branch looked up to his father and the possibility of making Chesapeake a better place to live.
"I grew up in an area where there were people who were addicted to drugs, and those sorts of things. So, I just saw how devastating that was to families [and] how hard it was on everybody. I honestly just wanted to help," said Branch.
Branch entered the police academy at 23 years old. At the time, he didn't realize the history he would make within the department.
"When I first came on, there was only two African American supervisors on the department. I came on in the 80s," he said. "The light kind of came off for me for to know that I did have a responsibility to those that were coming in after me."
From uniform patrol to sergeant, and now to the department's first Black deputy chief.
"It's important for them to see somebody who looks like them so they can say, 'If he did it, I can do it. If she did it, I can do it,'" Branch said.
As he was adjusting to the new position, about a month or two into the job, the unthinkable happened: a gunman killed six people inside the Walmart on Sam's Circle.
"At that critical point, everything counts and those [difficult] decisions have to be made," Branch said. "We were making decisions that we knew were gonna be impactful so we had to make sure that we trusted each other."
He's talking about the trust between himself and Police Chief Mark Solesky, which has been decades in the making. Branch said the two were partners in narcotics about 30 years ago, never expecting the November tragedy to happen, let alone to be in charge of the department.
"[We were] trying to make sure that that we were taking care of those that were injured in the hospital and making sure we were taking care of the witnesses, who were victims themselves of the devastation, and then making sure that we had things in place to take care of the officers afterwards," Branch said. "I think we're still recovering honestly, I think we still have officers that have been impacted."
Branch said going forward, the department wants to increase recruiting efforts.
"Fourteen years ago, you're trying to see if they're going to stay with you long term. Now, you're just happy that they're going to come here in the first place," he said. "We [have] to really change our model and our paradigm as far as recruiting."
The department also has the goal of reducing the crime rate and increasing civic engagement.
Speaking of civic engagement, Branch spends a lot of his time mentoring, coaching wrestling and giving back to the community that raised him.
"When I tell [the kids], I was raised by my grandmother in South Norfolk, and I went to Carver Elementary School, instantly we have some kind of rapport that bridges the gap," he said.
Both of Branch's grown children are also in law enforcement professions, so it's a family affair.
