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Driscoll, Ingalls welcomed to police force

Date: 5/31/2011

May 30, 2011

By Chris Maza

Reminder Assistant Editor

EAST LONGMEADOW — Meet officers Timothy Driscoll and Michael Ingalls, the newest additions to the East Longmeadow police force.

Driscoll — of no relation to Selectman James Driscoll — and Ingalls have started their training at the Police Department after recently completing 23 1/2 weeks' worth of training at the Springfield Police Academy at Westover Air Reserve Base and are excited to begin serving the community that both have strong ties to.

"It's a great town and a nice place to raise a family," Driscoll said. "It will be great to be able to serve the people of the town that I grew up in and give back to this community."

Driscoll was born and raised in East Longmeadow and graduated from the high school. Upon graduation, he enlisted in the Air National Guard and was deployed to Iraq in 2008. Since returning stateside, he had worked at Barnes Air National Guard Base as a military police officer.

"I knew right out of high school that I wanted to be a police officer, so I enlisted and got that military experience, which I think was a big help to me," Driscoll said.

Ingalls moved to town from Ludlow four years ago when he decided East Longmeadow was a perfect spot to raise a family. At 32 years old, he and his wife have three children.

"When we were going to move, we visited East Longmeadow. We were just driving through town around the time of the Jaycees' fair, so we brought the kids to the fair and everyone was so friendly," he said. "But what got us really hooked into town and was a real eye opener was how welcoming everyone was. Neighbors were knocking on our front door to say hi and bring us welcome packages. It's a great place to live and it drove me even more to get into the police academy here."

Before joining the Police Department, Ingalls worked for 12 years as a security officer for Baystate Medical Center. Prior to that, he had served as a reserve officer for the town of Ludlow since he was 21.

"My father was an officer with the Ludlow police for 27 years, so I first realized that I wanted to be in law enforcement at a very young age," Ingalls explained.

Both Ingalls and Driscoll detailed the long and difficult road to becoming a police officer.

"You have to really want to do it and you have to stick with it," Ingalls said. "I'm 32 years old and I'm just getting started."

It starts with taking the Civil Service Exam. Even if you do well, Driscoll said, there's no guarantee of a job.

"We took the test not knowing if anyone is going to be hiring," he said. "You look at the number of people there on the day of the test and there are thousands."

After they took the exam in 2008, Driscoll and Ingalls waited nearly three years to catch on with a department, largely because so many departments were dealing with very difficult budgets that prevented the addition of personnel, Police Chief Douglas Mellis said.

In order join the Police Department, they had to have an initial interview with the Police Department, undergo physical and psychological testing and interview with the Board of Selectmen. Once the Selectmen elected to hire Driscoll and Ingalls, it was off to the police academy for almost a half a year.

"It's a long process, which is why you really have to know that this is what you want to do and be willing to stick it out," Ingalls said.

Ingalls and Driscoll will be working with each of the different shifts at the department for the next several weeks in order to fully complete their training.

A third officer, James Gagnon, is also expected to join the force after he completes the Western Massachusetts Police Academy on the campus of Springfield Technical Community College. He will serve as a provisional military replacement officer in the place of officer Michael Sousa. Sousa was hired alongside Driscoll and Ingalls, but is currently serving in Afghanistan.

Mellis told Reminder Publications upon his hiring that he hoped Gagnon's position would become permanent if another officer retires.



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