DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC Safety Cpl. Bill Rogillio hangs up his Highway Patrol uniform to assume duties next week as Fairfield Police Department assistant chief of police. A veteran of almost 35 years in law enforcement, Department of Public Safety Sr. Cpl. Bill Rogillio moves to Fairfield city hall next week as assistant police chief.

Rogillio fills a position made vacant last month with the retirement of Asst. Chief Houston Flowers who served Fairfield Police Department for 33 years.

"There is a certain amount of apprehension leaving a job you have done so long, but I am looking forward to it," Rogillio says of the change.

"Kenny (Bulger) and I will be partners again," the new assistant chief points out.

Rogillio and Bulger worked together many years as highway patrolmen in Freestone county, both obtaining the rank of corporal. Bulger was hired last year as Fairfield chief of police.

"We are very fortunate to get him in here with us," the FPD Chief Bulger says. "He could write his own ticket with any trucking company as a safety coordinator."

Born in Huntsville, Rogillio 52, , says he lived in several towns as his father was transferred in his work for Exxon/Mobile. He graduated Spring Woods high school in Houston in 1974 and went to work for Texas Department of Criminal Justice while a student at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville.

After three and onehalf years with the prison system, Rogillio joined Temple Police Department and worked there for three years until starting the DPS Academy in Austin.

After graduating the DPS Academy, the officer worked as a highway patrol trooper for almost three years in Bay City, then transferred to Fairfield in July 1983.

"We were on the coast and that wasn't our thing," the 52-year-old says. "Central Texas is what we wanted to move toward."

Rogillio's wife, Janet, is a native of Cameron. The two met at SHSU where she earned a bachelor of science degree in law enforcement/police science. Mrs. Rogillio has worked as investigator for the Freestone county attorcommissioner ney's office for more than 25 years.

The new FPD assistant chief served with the DPS until retiring in 2005 and rejoined the service after sitting out 30 days.

His last day in a DPS uniform was Friday.

In 1997, Rogillio left regular patrol to begin work as a DPS license and weight trooper in Freestone, Leon, Madison and Houston counties and has continued in that capacity since.

He also is an expert in accident reconstruction as a member of district and state teams and can be summoned at a moment's notice to the scene of a vehicle wreck.

The officer spent his last two weeks with the DPS teaching accident reconstruction at the academy. As one of four state team members, he has been responsible for overseeing the DPS accident reconstruction program and instructing.

Rogillio points out that he gained experience as a criminal investigator during his time in Temple—- he worked as a uniformed investigator on his shifts.

The new assistant police chief reports that Bulger asked him some time back if he would be interested in the number two spot in the Fairfield department, and explains that when Flowers decided to retire he researched the job and applied.

The veteran law enforcement officer was formally hired by action of the city council last week.

The Rogillios are parents of two daughters, both of them graduates of Fairfield high school: Amanda Cady, 25, and her husband, Scott, live in League City; and Emily, 20, is a senior student at the University of Texas at Austin.

Outside work, the couple spend time doing yard work at their Fairfield home.

"That's what we like doing together," Rogillio says.

The family are members of St. Bernard Catholic Church of Fairfield.

FPD is authorized for a chief and assistant chief of police, two sergeants, two corporals, a school resource officer and seven patrolmen.