Editor’s note: This is the second of a three-part series on the fictional town of Mayberry and its relation to Wilmore.

Mayberry, the signature fictional town in “The Andy Griffith Show,” had plenty of familiar faces.

Mayor Pike and Howard Sprague gave the town hall plenty of color. The Pyle cousins at the filling station were always ripe for conversation. Floyd Lawson, Ellie Walker and Ben Weaver ran their respective businesses with pride. Even Aunt Bee was seen around town with regularity.

But easily the most visible character in Mayberry was the sheriff, Andy Taylor. He was the voice of reason in town, the one person whom everybody knew and trusted — Mayberry’s glue.

Steve Boven, Wilmore’s police chief, works every day to fill that role. He said he doesn’t take the position in Wilmore for granted, either.

Boven came from the Michigan State Police where he saw some of the rougher areas of the country.

“I worked at some larger posts that were rather busy,” he said. “The last one I worked at was the Pontiac post, and I investigated murders down to paper crimes. Before that, I worked in downtown Detroit, and I lived in downtown Detroit for two years, right at the end of one of the worst streets in Detroit.”

He came to the Wilmore Police Department in 1990, a drastic change from the rigors of his old job. Right away, he noticed that Wilmore was a different town than he was used to.

“I remember the first time I walked downtown — and you get this often with people who walk in here — it’s like you’ve walked back in time 50 years,” he said. “You’ve got the quaint little town, you’ve got Sim’s Drugs, Tastebuds, the soda fountain, and it’s just like when I grew up 50 years ago. You have that quaintness that just reminds you of Mayberry because it’s kind of laid back.”

Boven said several factors go into the demeanor of the town as it’s related to his job. An important one is that Wilmore has two higher education institution: Asbury College, a Christian college, and Asbury Theological Seminary. He said the religious roots of those schools contributes to Wilmore’s pacific nature

“At one point, a few years ago, I did some calculations, and about 25 percent of the people that lived in town either worked as a faculty member or a staff member,” he said. “Plus you have a lot of the people coming in to go to one of those two institutions being Christian, so it added to the calmness of the town, the quietness of the town.”

Another large factor is Wilmore’s size and population. Boven gets a chance to meet more people and conduct his duties with a more personal style.

“When I first got here, everybody that I stopped on the road would say ‘I know (then police chief) Roger Swallows,’” Boven said. “It used to bug me a little bit. I mentioned that to a professor one time. He said, ‘Steve, when I have a problem, it makes a great difference to me if I know the person that I’m going to talk to.’”

Boven adopted that philosophy of law enforcement and said it has made a great difference in how he approaches his duties now that he is chief.

“Now my officers tell me everybody says ‘I know Steve Boven,’” he said, laughing. “That and a dollar and a quarter will get you a cup of coffee somewhere.”

Boven said he sees that same personal style in the way Andy Taylor went about his job in Mayberry.

“Andy, if he had to talk to somebody, he would talk with them and try to make them understand that it’s in their best interest and in the town’s best interest for them to change their behavior,” he said. “I don’t think you have to be as law enforcement-minded as in larger areas because you know people. If you stop somebody that you know, there’s a social pressure there. You draw it to their attention, you give them a warning, and you probably never talk to them again about it.”

The same holds true for the victim’s side of crime.

“Just this morning I had someone share with me something that’s going on in their family, and it’s nice to be a part of that,” he said. “You get to experience real life because you are dealing with people you know — you are a part of their lives.”

Wilmore is not without its own problem areas. Boven said he deals with mostly petty theft and some vandalism cases. The biggest crimes in recent memory were an attempted murder five years ago and a homicide approximately 30 years ago.

Boven’s job might not be as exciting as that of some other police chiefs, but he said he wouldn’t trade his post with anybody else in the country, except maybe with his fictional counterpart.

“Andy thought it was great to do life in Mayberry, and I think it’s great to do life in Wilmore,” he said.