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Show Law enforcement history in Centerville discussed Law enforcement in Centerville has certainly changed from the city's earlier years when the city fathers hired a part-time city marshal. mar-shal. Today Centerville has a 10-man 10-man police force which is considered con-sidered to be among the best. Many outstanding officers began with the Centerville Police Force. While the entire story of law and Oier in Centerville has yet to be xight together, Ves Harrison, at a recent meeting of the Centerville Historical Society, reported on in- He was replaced by Clifford Russell, who went on to serve the City of Centerville for 25 years as chief of police. Russell was bom in Seattle, Wash, in 1934. He later moved to Spokane. When he reached draft age, he joined the Air Force and came to Hill Air Force Base. While Russell was at Hill, he met his wife Joyce. They were married in 1958. After he got out of the Air Force, Russell worked as a TV repairman and later for Bountiful City Road Chief Russell started bike safety, drug programs and a safety patrol program. "It really paid. We got close to the kids and it saved a lot of problems later," Russell said. Russell also helped to pick a design for the Centerville Police Department arm patch. The Centerville Center-ville patch is based on the patch for the San Francisco Police Department. Depart-ment. The department changed the words to "working and growing together." It was necessary to call the San Francisco Chief of Police to get that department s okay to use the design. Chief Russell said that when he started working in Centerville, most crime came from outside of Centerville. Center-ville. While he was on the force he had all kinds of cases, even homicide. homi-cide. In the beginning, the worst accidents ac-cidents were on Porters Lane, where it crosses the Union Pacific and Rio Grand railroad tracks. In contrast, now the 1-15 interchange at Parrish Lane is the biggest problem area. Chief Russell also told of some of the interesting events that took place during the 25 years he was Chief of Police in Centerville. Indian bones were discovered by some children playing in the Centerville Cemetery. The bones had been brought down in a load of dirt from what is now Island View Park. At the time people from the University Uni-versity of Utah said that there was probably an Indian burial site where the park has been located. Russell also added the unusual signs in front of J. A Taylor Elementary School on Pages Lane that say, "Don't Even Think of Parking Here. ' He told one novel bank robbery story. There was a bank robbery at the Bank of Utah in Centerville. A man held up the bank and when he didn't see his picture in the paper, he held the bank up again. The camera didn't trip the second time either. Because of that, he came back the third time and held the bank up again. This time he was captured on film and his picture was in the local papers. His wife saw the picture and turned him in. Chief Russell pointed out that when he left the Centerville Police Department, the department had eight men. It now has 10. The budget was $450,000. It is now $600,000. The budget was less than $20,000 when Russell started working work-ing for the department in 1963. |