Hal is, in every sense, a Montgomery County native. He was born in Crawfordsville on March 7, 1958 to Connie and Sandra Utterback. He attended public schools in the area and graduated from Crawfordsville High School in 1977 lettering in both football and basketball.
Having known from an early age about his vocation to be a police officer, he joined and eventually became president of Explorers, a high school organization designed to provide information and early training to young people considering a career in law enforcement.
After graduating from high school he gained additional work experience in his jobs with Midstates and Houston Healthcare where he started and managed their ambulance service.
Hal became a police reserve officer in March 1979 just days after reaching the minimum age requirement to enter the force. He hired on to the Crawfordsville Police Department four months later in July of that same year. To become a police officer, he took a 50% cut in pay from $12/hr to $6 believing that the work of protecting and serving the community offered its own reward.
Throughout his career, Hal has had the opportunity to do many things for CPD. He headed the first DUI task force in the early 80s. He has been a member of the SWAT Team and ultimately its commander. His most rewarding position with the department was as a DARE Officer working at Tuttle Middle School. He and Jeff Largent were the first two city police officers to introduce the DARE program. He talked and worked with students and showed them the human face of law enforcement. He exemplified that humanity as he took the time to listen to his pupils’ problems and illustrated that a policer officer does far more than put people in jail. Being able to liaison with the school system allowed his efforts to shine at the state level where he presented at the School Safety Academy in Indianapolis about how to develop working relationships betweens school systems, police departments and other public safety professionals.
Additionally on the local level, Hal sat on the committee that wrote the first drug testing policy for the Crawfordsville School System, works with the Montgomery County All Hazards Committee to develop a comprehensive plan for the city and county for handling and mitigating disasters as well as the Montgomery County Crisis team, which trains and plans for emergency situations and disasters. He has been a member of the AHEAD (Advocates Helping to Educate Against Drugs) Coalition almost since its inception nearly 15 years ago serving as the board’s president for much of the early part of the this decade.
Most recently he has served the community and Crawfordsville Police Deparment as the Assistant Chief of Police with the accolades of two mayoral administrations, his superiors, and the women and men who served under him in the department. Running for the position of County Sheriff required him to step down from his position. Such an action shows the commitment that Hal has to his campaign, his respect for procedures set down by the City of Crawfordsville in these matters, and the strength of his conviction that a change needs to occur in the next sheriff’s administration.
An exceptional professional life hasn’t stifled Hal’s enjoyment of the things that make life worth living. He enjoys basketball, hunting, fishing, and myriad activities that allow him to experience the great outdoors. He attends St. Bernard’s Roman Catholic Church with his wife, Jackie, who has been a great source of love and encouragement since their marriage in 1984. Now they now work together side by side on all the rigorous requirements demanded in a political campaign. Their son Paul, born in 1987, works out of the state for Apple, Inc., but the campaign remains a family affair despite that as he attends to all aspects of the campaign’s technology needs.
Hal has given his utmost diligence to the service and protection of the people and communities in our county as evidenced through his impressive track record of service and achievement. History is usually a key indicator of success in the future. With that in mind, it’s clear that a future with Hal Utterback as Sheriff would be a very bright one indeed for Montgomery County.
