Interim Centralia Police Chief Andy Caldwell swore in one new police officer and also introduced the Centralia Police Department’s two newly promoted sergeants during the Centralia City Council meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 26.
Officer Alex Alvarenga is joining the department and Sergeants Michael Barela and Alan Hitchcock have been promoted.
Caldwell first explained what the promotions of Barela and Hitchcock meant.
“The role of police sergeant is often overlooked by the communities they serve. As patrol officers are the backbone of any police department, the police sergeant is the first line supervisor for patrol officers,” Caldwell said. “They’ve shown proficiency and understanding in applying local, state and federal laws. They’re responsible for ensuring that the day-to-day police services meet their mission of protecting the quality of life in our community.”
He then read the famous late radio personality Paul Harvey’s “Policeman” speech.
Both Barela and Hitchcock were officially promoted to sergeant on Oct. 1, 2024.
A married father of two, Hitchcock has been one of the department’s “home-grown” officers, as he was born in Chehalis. Prior to his promotion, he had already been a field training officer since 2019 and has been serving on and off as the officer-in-charge since 2019.
“His leadership abilities have led to him being selected to supervise the field training program for our department,” Caldwell said.
Barela is a married father of three. He moved to Washington from California in 2016 to be closer to family. He joined the Centralia Police Department in 2019 and served as both a detective and in the field training officer program.
“As a collateral duty, he serves on our critical response unit, and earlier this year his peers selected him to be assistant team leader of the critical response unit,” Caldwell added.
Caldwell then introduced Alvarenga to the council.
Originally born in Los Angeles, California, Alvarenga was only 4 years old when his family moved to Centralia, where he was raised.
“In 2018, while attending Centralia High School, he was chosen to represent the United States in the … (FIFA) Futsal World Cup in Columbia,” Caldwell said.
Futsal is the indoor version of soccer organized by FIFA.
He earned a Lewis County Athlete of the Year award and graduated from Centralia High School in 2020. He attended South Puget Sound Community College and played soccer for the Thurston County Soccer Academy — a team in the semi-professional United Premier Soccer League.
This year, he graduated from Centralia College, becoming both a first-generation high school and college graduate for his family.
“He is bilingual and his first language is Spanish. With that in mind and the fact that we do have a population here that sometimes can go underserved and underrepresented in the law enforcement community, I have asked Alex Alvarenga to read the police officer Code of (Ethics) in Spanish,” Caldwell said.
Following the reading of the International Association of Police Chief’s (IAPC) Policing Code of Ethics, Caldwell swore Alvarenga in and gave him his Centralia Police Department badge.
To read the IAPC’s Policing Code of Ethics, visit https://www.theiacp.org/resources/policing-code-of-ethics.
