The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
New cop aims to balance job, family
Took decade to decide on career
CROMWELL — The town’s newest police officer is a 35-year-old former pitcher/coach and special education teacher who waited until he was ready to become a police officer.
The appointment of Matt Hennessey brings the department back up to its authorized strength of 27, Chief Denise Lamontagne said.
A Naugatuck native, Hennessey was sworn in at a ceremony in the atrium of Town Hall earlier this week. He fills the vacancy created by the resignation and subsequent death of Officer Mark Gery.
Lamontagne said Hennessey was chosen from an initial list of 55 to 60 applicants that was whittled down to “probably 12-ish people who took the physical agility test and the background investigation. Officer Hennessey successfully passed all aspects of the section process, including the background investigation, the polygraph examination and the psychological test.”
Service to country and community is a trait that runs deep in Hennessey’s family.
“I always had respect for authority,” he said, explaining his father was a police officer for eight years and “a lot of my uncles, my godfather and two of my brothers” either served in or are serving in the military.
Hennessey grew up involved in team sports, in particular baseball. A lefthanded pitcher, he went to Southern Connecticut State University on a baseball scholarship.
He was good, throwing in the high 80-plus mph range with an earned run average in the low twos.
“I did my job. I got people out,” he said with a smile. But, he explained, as good as he was and as much as he
loved the game, he knew he would never make it to the big leagues — to “the show.”
To have even a chance to get to the major leagues, “You have to be 6 feet tall — and I’m 5-foot-10 inches — and you have to throw in the 90s (mph).”
Undeterred, Hennessey began coaching baseball right out of college. He also began working as a special education aide in the Fairfield Public Schools. He also got something else out of his time at Southern: Kelly, who is now his wife.
While her husband was a baseball pitcher, Kelly Hennessey was a softball pitcher at Southern. When she graduated, she followed a similar path, first coaching and then becoming an aide at the same school as Hennessey, Cooperative Educational Services in Trumbull.
The Hennesseys have two children, a son Colton, 3, and daughter, Harper, 11 months.
Being a father is “awesome. My kids are great,” Hennessey said, adding, “And my wife is my rock.”
She is “aware that a police officer’s job is difficult,” he said.
At the same time, he realizes the need to strike a balance between “being a positive person and police officer in the community while maintaining my relationship with my family.”
Focused and self-aware, Hennessey also brings a sharp sense of humor to a conversation.
Hennessey leaves today for the 24-week training regimen at the Municipal Police Academy, which will be followed by a 10- to 12week Field Training Officer program in Cromwell. He will be paired with different officers to learn the town and techniques and procedures the department uses.
Hennessey said he is approaching the job with the intention of “being a positive influence on the community.” He had spent most of the past decade thinking about becoming a police officer and realizing “who I am and whether I could be a positive influence.”
As he embarked on the selection process, “Everyone’s been awesome to me, from the oral board, the background investigation. I was received very, very well by the people in the Town Hall.
“Everyone’s been super accepting — even the townspeople. I felt comfortable in a town like this, so much so that I was comfortable in saying, ‘Yes. I want to work here,’ ” Hennessey added.