Burnet council selects Nelson as police chief

By CHRIS PORTER • Daily Tribune Staff

BURNET - Paul Nelson has been named chief of the Burnet Police Department following a three-month search by a special city commission.

Shell had served as interim chief since the resignation of former Chief Bob Watson in August.

“It’s an honor to be the chief of the Police Department for the city of Burnet,” Nelson said Wednesday. “I believe in this community. I’ve worked for it for 10 years. I’m looking forward to the future.”

City Manager Mike Steele said the commission - which included himself, Mayor Alan Smith, Councilman Paul Shell, Assistant City Manager David Vaughn and city Finance Director Joyce Laudenschlager - made the decision Wednesday.

“We felt that Paul has done a tremendous job filling the vacant positions that we’ve had in the Police Department, and he’s done a great job stopping the employee rotation,” Steele said. “We felt that he deserved a chance to carry on the work that he’s done.”

Nelson, a Lampasas native, got his start in law enforcement 15 years ago as a prison guard. He later worked as a jailer before joining the Burnet police as an investigator about 10 years ago.

Now that he’s chief, Nelson said he intends to continue working the streets alongside his officers.

“I’ll still be working pretty much everything,” he said. “If I have to work the street, I’ll cover a street shift or an investigation. I think this is still a small enough community to still have a working police chief.”

Nelson has so far filled three patrol officer positions that were vacant when he took over as interim chief. He also hired a new animal-control officer.

“We still have one more position to fill,” he said. “I didn’t want to overload the training officers, so we want to get the (the new officers) trained and out on the street by themselves before we hire someone new.”

Nelson said he will hire a new investigator to take the place of the job he formerly held as police captain.

Steele said Nelson has the full support of the city and the Police Department in his new position.

“I talked to the cops during the hiring process, and to a man, they supported Paul,” he said. “Not only that, we got unsolicited reports from other police agencies, the school district and the community. Everyone said he puts in lots of extra hours getting the job done.”

chris@thepicayune.com

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Burnet council selects Nelson
as police chief