Photo supplied, Pleasant View City

PLEASANT VIEW — In 1974, Ryon Hadley told his wife he’d be a police officer for a little while until he could decide what he wanted to do with his life. Fifty years later, after serving with a handful of area police departments, including the last 10 years as Pleasant View’s chief of police, Hadley has made a decision — retirement.

Last week, Pleasant View City announced that Hadley is set to retire from the position. In celebration of his time as chief, the city will be hosting a public open house at Pleasant View City Hall from 3-5 p.m. Sept. 17.

Hadley told the Standard-Examiner that a neighbor helped inspire him to get into law enforcement five decades ago.

“I lived in South Ogden and I had a neighbor who was a police officer,” he said. “I kind of admired the work he did and he let me ride with him a couple times when I was only 20 years old. It didn’t take long to see the excitement and the good that he was doing and I thought, ‘This is something I’d like to try.'”

He said within a year he became a reserve officer with the South Ogden Police Department before quickly going full time. Since 1974, Hadley also has served the North Ogden and Huntsville police departments as well as the Weber County Sheriff’s Office.

Photo supplied, Pleasant View City

“All of those agencies have been really good to work with,” he said.

Hadley said one of the biggest changes he’s seen in his five decades of law enforcement is how the job is carried out.

“It’s changed a lot in 50 years,” he said. “I’d say 50 years ago, 40 or 30 years ago, police officers did what had to be done. Now we dictate what society wants us to do. … Laws have changed, procedures changed, training’s changed. A lot of it for the better and some of it, I think, maybe not for the better.”

Reflecting on his 10 years as chief in Pleasant View, Hadley had praise for the city and its police department.

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with Pleasant View,” he said. “They’re a great city, great police department. We’ve made some real changes in the 10 years. It’s a good organization to work with. The city is a really good city. It’s got its problems like any other city does, but for the most part, it’s probably one of the more enjoyable police jobs I’ve had in my 50 years.”

He said the position has come with its challenges over the last decade, especially keeping up with ever-evolving legislation and policy.

“Things like use of force, search and seizure, these types of things — they’ve all changed a little bit and we’ve had to adapt to the new criteria,” he said. “With everybody with cameras and cellphones now, we’re held more accountable now than we’ve ever been before, and I think, for the most part, that’s a really good thing. I don’t think the public understands how hard it is to do this job. We’re scrutinized by the suspects we deal with and then, sometimes, we’re scrutinized by the public when they only see a portion of what went on with the video.”

Hadley said some of these challenges have made it difficult to bring in new officers.

“Officers are getting discouraged that there’s more and more scrutiny to what they do,” he said. “It’s frankly getting hard to hire. There’s less and less people wanting to become police officers just for that very reason.”

However, he said there’s still been a lot accomplished at the Pleasant View Police Department over the past decade.

“We created a K-9 program in the police department,” he said. “We’ve made promotional opportunities. We’ve done a lot with community policing and school resource — we have an officer in Weber High School that also serves two elementary schools. A lot of these have been implemented in the last 10 years that I’ve been here. The citizens have generally been very supportive of their police.”

Hadley said law enforcement, at one point, was only a temporary plan of his.

“I remember telling my wife in 1974 that, ‘I think I might want to try and be a policeman for a while until I decide what I want to do,'” he said. “Then 50 years went by. Apparently, this is what I wanted to do.”

But now, he said, he’s looking forward to retirement.

“I have a home in St. George,” he said. “I’ve got kids, grandkids and, recently, a great-grandchild. I’ve got a lot of making up to do with family for the long hours that I’ve put in.”

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