Centerville Police Department has two new officers. On April 16 Police Chief Paul Child introduced them to Mayor Clark Wilkinson and the city council.

“I’m ecstatic about this; I’m really excited about our two new officers,” Child said. 

Officer Stetson Ryan grew up and now lives in West Valley City and was scheduled to graduate from the police academy on April 25.

“He's knocking it out of the park in the academy,” Child said. “He’s pretty good with firearms and he’s doing excellent in the academy so we’re excited to have him.”

Ryan has already been working as a backup officer for the department working the road and helping out with arrests, Child said. Upon graduation from the police academy, he will finish up his field training with Centerville PD.

Ryan loves kayaking, fishing, hiking and camping. 

“He really just loves anything outdoors and involving the mountains,” Child said. “Stetson has always known from a young age that he wanted to serve the communities around him and be a part of law enforcement.”

Officer Conor Orozco comes to Centerville after two years as a member of the Bountiful Police Department where he was a firearms instructor. During that time, he became involved with Centerville’s K-9 hound program.

“He’s just fallen in love with that whole program,” Child said. “So we were just really excited that he expressed interest and put in an application for us.”

Orozco was sworn in and put to work on his first day, Child said.

Orozco was born and raised in Utah and comes from a large family with nine siblings. 

He enjoys baseball, training dogs and enjoys “nerdy things” like Star Wars and history, Child said.

Both of the men had previously been sworn in as police officers, but that night Child administered the Oath of Honor, a Centerville practice which encourages the officers to go above and beyond, he said.

In taking the oath the two officers vowed to never betray their integrity, character, or the 

public trust, to have the courage to hold themselves and others accountable for their actions, to always maintain the highest ethical standards and to uphold the values of their community and of the Centerville Police Department.

Mayor Clark Wilkinson expressed appreciation for the two new officers.

“What I'm thrilled about is we've had some experience with them,” he said. “I'm sure that Conor being a Bountiful officer has been involved with helping us a bit with our police chiefs and our police forces working so closely together.”

Wilkinson recalled that he had met Ryan during an incident when there was a fire at some local apartments.

As Centerville officials welcome the two new officers, they are also preparing to look for a new police chief. Child will retire on July 15. He has served in that position for nine years. Child was the assistant police chief when his predecessor Neal Worsley announced his retirement in 2015.

At the April 16 work meeting the council discussed the process for finding a new chief. During that meeting Child outlined for them actions neighboring cities have gone through in their search for a police chief for their communities. The council considered whether to conduct an outside search or to look for a new chief from candidates within the department but did not come to a conclusion that night.