4 Centerville officers promoted under new chief

The Centerville Police Department has promoted four officers as Chief Matt Brown adjusts the staff during his first year in the position.

Promoted were: Sgt. Tyler Wilson to lieutenant in command of support services, Sgt. Michael Yoder to lieutenant in command of community relations, officer Anthony Green to sergeant and officer Joshua Ratliff to sergeant.

“This is an exciting time for the police department and an exciting time for me personally,” Brown said. “I became chief in July of this year and these are the first four promotions made under my command.”

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Brown is guiding a department with 52 employees: 37 sworn officers, 12 employees in records and communication and three administrative employees.

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“I’d like to be able to increase some of our recruitment and the retention of our personnel,” he said. “We have several retirements in the upcoming years and we will be replacing some personnel.”

City Manager Wayne Davis said of the promoted officers, “I think you see the best of the best of our Centerville Police Dept. They work hard and they work smart and they’ve been through a rigorous training and also interview process as well and they came out ahead. We continue to work on professional development for our staff.”

Centerville and Kettering have also renewed an agreement for Kettering to house male prisoners from Centerville that need to stay overnight in the Kettering jail.

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Maureen Russell Hodgson, community resources coordinator for the city, said there weren’t any new details to the arrangement that is in place.

“Our cells here are just holding cells,” she said. “So we transport someone to the Kettering or Montgomery County jail if there is a need to hold someone overnight or longer.”

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