Before the Centralia City Council went about its normal business at its regular Tuesday night meeting, two new officers were sworn into the Centralia Police Department.
Officers Caleb Parsons and Colton Pruitt were introduced to the council and city by Centralia Police Chief Stacy Denham.
Parsons is a Centralia native whose family moved to southern China when he was 13 years old. His family was doing missionary work with impoverished Chinese citizens. Parsons remained in China until he graduated from high school and returned to Centralia in 2017 where he still currently resides with his wife of three years.
Denham asked Parsons what drove him to pursue a career in law enforcement. Parsons said wanted to help his community and felt called to do so.
“He wanted to make a difference in his community because he saw his community getting worse. He wanted to step up and be a part of that change,” Denham said at the meeting.
As for Pruitt, he grew up in Chehalis and graduated from W.F. West High School and was an avid soccer player before enlisting in the U.S. Navy following his high school graduation in 2017.
Pruitt was honorably discharged after a four-year enlistment and returned to Washington, settling in Centralia.
Like Parsons, he joined the police department hoping to make a difference in his community and because he missed a military-like structured work environment.
Following their introductions, Denham had both Pruitt and Parsons read the law enforcement code of ethics before having their badges pinned on and officially becoming officers.
The law enforcement code of ethics can be found online at https://www.theiacp.org/resources/law-enforcement-code-of-ethics.
