By Natasha Lee
Staff Writer
April 13, 2007
STAMFORD - For most of the 16 men and women in blue on stage last night, becoming a police officer was a lifelong dream.
After more than 800 hours of grueling push-ups, mile runs, criminal law classes and defense tactics, their dreams came true as they were sworn in to the Stamford Police Department.
"You are those who are called upon to lead and to sacrifice," Mayor Dannel Malloy said.
The rookie officers were welcomed into the department by Malloy and Police Chief Brent Larrabee, as more than 250 family members and friends beamed and applauded at the Rich Forum.
"He looked so fabulous in his uniform," Torey Strauser, said of her husband, Officer Troy Strauser.
Strauser said seeing her husband accept his diploma was emotional, because becoming an officer is something he's wanted to do for a long time.
"This is what makes him happy," she said. "And that makes me proud."
The class is the 11th to graduate since the department started its own academy.
Of 363 applicants, only 20 recruits were accepted. Of those, 16 passed the academy, including one officer from the Greenwich Police Department.
Officer Michael Nguyen, the class speaker, described the application-through-academy process as arduous but said the camaraderie and dedicated instructors pulled them through.
"We are class No. 11 of the Stamford Police Academy: The class that never quit," Nguyen told the audience.
A former fifth-grade teacher at Roxbury Elementary School, Nguyen followed both his parents.
"He's a go-getter," Susan Nguyen said of her brother. "He puts his mind to it and he gets it done."
His father, Son Nguyen, served as a police officer in Vietnam for three years, and his mother, Viet Xuan, was a grade school teacher before they fled after the war.
Viet Xuan Nguyen said after weeks of watching him study and arrive home with bruises from physical training, she was elated to see her son walk across the stage.
"He always wanted to be a policeman, even when he was little," she said.
The rookies range in age from 21 to 35. For some, it was the start of their second career.
For several of the new officers, it is a career that runs in the family.
Desiree Hamm is the fifth officer in her family. Her mother and stepfather are officers in the Norwalk Police Department, and her father retired as a Norwalk police inspector. Her older brother is an officer in Stratford.
After three years of studying psychology at Southern Connecticut State University, Hamm decided to join the ranks. She knew she wanted to work in Stamford.
"It was just a way to make my own name and have my own experience," Hamm said.
Hamm's mother, Lt. Angela Walsh, said police work was always her daughter's "true desire."
"I tried to sway her into other areas, but she wasn't having it," Walsh said.
Sgt. Kris Engstrand, the academy's training coordinator, said the class was exceptional.
The rookie officers will next undergo 12 weeks of field training where they are teamed up with a veteran officer and have the chance to put their academy experience to work.
They must pass the training to become full-fledged officers.
"We got a lot of great people that work here, and we got a new batch of great people to add to the mix," Engstrand said.
Officer William Edson, 32, a former Navy SEAL, said he couldn't wait to put his new skills to the test. The transition from military to policing was natural, he said.
"Out at sea, you're hunting the enemy. Here, you're protecting families from the enemy," he said.
Edson was working as a bodyguard for a Greenwich family when he decided to switch to something that would keep him close to his 2-year-old daughter and wife, Sage.
"I wanted something that would give me similar satisfaction as the military but wouldn't take me away from my family for six to nine months," he said.
Jack Coughlin he was proud to have another Stamford police officer in the family. Coughlin and his family went to watch his nephew, Sean Coughlin, be sworn in.
Coughlin's father and Sean Coughlin's grandfather, John Coughlin, served on the Stamford police force for 32 years, Jack Coughlin said.
"We wished grandpa was still alive. He'd be so proud," Jack Coughlin said.
Copyright © 2007, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.