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Ever since Kent Lyman was a kid he wanted to be a police officer. "Me and my brother and my neighbor played cops and robbers when we were little, and we were always the cops," Lyman said after he finished his shift at the Easton Police Department.
But the road to public service wasn't easy. When he graduated from Frank Scott Bunnell High School in Stratford, he joined the Marines and served for four years. He then worked for Nextel for several years before becoming a chef at Omega Industries' corporate cafeteria.
"For a while I was overweight, for my frame," he said. "That was stopping me from [pursuing police work]. Finally I was just like, 'You know what, I'm just sick of going down that path.' I was tired walking up stairs, stuff like that."
After losing nearly 60 pounds, he began applying for police positions and found a home in Easton.
"I liked Easton because it's a small town. I wanted to focus on small towns," Lyman said. "I wanted to be able to talk to people and get to know the community."
He said that he was surprised at the amount of personal interaction the job requires. "Ninety percent of what you do is simply talking to somebody. It's all oral interaction, and that really surprised me, that you have to have those personal skills," Lyman said. "Every contact I have with somebody is some kind of conversation."
His brother and his childhood neighbor are cops, too, in other towns. "We wanted to serve together, but it's competitive out there," Lyman said.
But he said he is happy in Easton. "The town is actually really nice, everyone has been really nice. They make my job easy," he said.
In his spare time he plays ice hockey, runs and spends time with his wife of six years, Megan, and his 4-month-old daughter, Emma.
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