Two Centerville police officers were recently promoted and were recognized at the Sept. 3 Centerville City Council meeting. Both officers went through rigorous testing and interviewing before being recommended for their new positions, Police Chief Allen Ackerson said. 

“We consider years of service with Centerville,” Ackerson said. “We send out peer evaluations to all the officers and staff where they are brutally honest in critiquing candidates. We consider education and training …  There’s a written test and an oral board where they fire him with questions. They review his resume and then I have an opportunity to provide chief points based on my evaluation of them.”

Sergeant Shaun McWilliams, who was promoted in August, has been with the Centerville Police Department for seven years. He started his law enforcement career in Kansas as a state trooper where he served for 12 years before moving to Utah to become a highway patrol officer. He joined the Centerville Police Department in 2017 as a patrol officer and was promoted to a master officer two years ago.

McWilliams is a squad leader and negotiator with the Davis County SWAT team’s public order unit. He is also a member of the Centerville PD’s peer support team and is a standardized field sobriety test instructor. 

In 2019 he was awarded the medal of valor by the Utah Peace Officers Association for his selfless actions when he helped rescue people trapped inside of a fully engulfed vehicle fire after a serious vehicle crash. In 2022 he and several other officers were presented with the Medal of Valor by then-Police Chief Paul Child in apprehending a suspected arsonist. Child also presented the detective division, then commanded by the other officer being promoted, Lieutenant Will Barnes, then a sergeant, with a unit citation for their response to the same incident.

Barnes was hired by the Centerville Police Department in 2005 after putting himself through the Police Academy. He was a member of the former Centerville problem-oriented policing unit before being promoted to detective and then to sergeant. He spent time as the administrative patrol sergeant, followed by detective sergeant before being promoted to his new position in July.

Barnes is an assistant team leader with the South Davis Metro SWAT team and holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice administration from Columbia College. 

“The lieutenant promotional process was once again a brutal employee evaluation where we consider years of supervisory experience, education and then we consider the number of supervisory specific trainings that he has received,” Ackerson said. “He goes through a panel interview where they grade him and then once again there are chief points and at the end of that process he was selected to be our lieutenant.”

Both officers not only survived this vetting but performed extremely well, Ackerson said. 

Mayor Clark Wilkinson then took the opportunity to praise the department.

“I've noticed Bailey … here working hard serving food during Chief Child's retirement [party] along with her mom, and I've seen that from all of your families at the department,” he said. “I'm just really impressed with how you involve the families as well. That's really meaningful and important so thank you for that.”