CENTER - Its official, there’s a new police chief in town, and he is proud to hold the position. Former Center Interim Police Chief Eidy Guaderrama is now the official Center Police Department chief. 

When asked how it feels to be the official chief, Guaderrama stated, “It really hasn’t settled in, it’s still a shock. At first, I was very nervous. I feel really grateful. I am looking forward to engaging with the community and helping to provide the best policing services that we possibly can.” 

Guaderrama is no stranger to working hard. Growing up, he watched his parents work hard in agriculture, stating that he wanted to break the tradition and do something different. A native of the valley, he has lived in Center for 31 years now. Guaderrama stated that he remembers being 18 and enlisting in the military and then coming back and attending school to be in law enforcement. After law enforcement training, he also opened his own trucking business for a while with his family, but he felt a pull towards law enforcement and decided to go back to it, “That’s really everything that got me here.”  

Guaderrama stated that he feels that his parents always provided lots of support to him, and his wife and children have been so supportive of him being in law enforcement too. Guaderrama said they are the ones who have kept him striving to do the best he can for the town of Center.  

When asked, Guaderrama stated that what he sees in the Center community is how badly the community needs more engagement with law enforcement, and he wants the community to gain a better relationship with law-enforcement, “For the longest time I think there has been a barrier there. We want to change that. We want to be more socialized with the kids, be more active with the kids when they are in school. We want to help educate the public on current laws. We want to show everyone that we are here for them and here to provide a good service to them.”  

Guaderrama stated he is looking forward to having community engagement events with everyone, like “Coffee with the Chief,” and he would also like to hold a family night out, with everyone in Center, before the summer is over, so that the community can get familiar with him and all the officers. "We have a great team. We have a good set of guys working together. They are very professional, very educated, and they like to interact with the public too.”  

Guaderrama stated that he understands that there will always be some people that will be against law enforcement, and not want anything to do with them until they need them, but he and his officers have heard a lot of good feedback from the citizens who support law enforcement and they are happy to hear that people are pleased with what they are trying to do, “It makes us pretty happy and keeps us motivated to keep doing what we can do for the Center community. We appreciate the support and the feedback, and we look forward to doing more and engaging more with the community.”