New Cheshire cop going from spreadsheets to police beat

CHESHIRE >> Despite having studied accounting in college and having worked in the field for four years, Kyle Pixley longed to do something else.

“I just couldn’t see myself working with spreadsheets for the rest of my life,” the Hampden, Mass., resident said Monday after he was sworn in as the town’s newest police officer. “I think some of my accounting skills will serve me well in police work.”

Town Manager Michael Milone said Pixley was selected as the department’s new officer, in part, because of his “unimpeachable integrity.”

“You have what we want,” Milone said.

Pixley will start his training next month at the Connecticut Police Academy in April and is expected to complete it by early October, Police Chief Neil Dryfe said. Even with Pixley’s hiring, Dryfe said the department still need to hire two more officers to get to its full complement of 48.

Having added three new officers at the end of last year, Dryfe joked that swearing-in ceremonies have be come a common occurrence for the department.

“We’ve been doing this a lot,” he said prior to Pixley’s ceremony.

Hiring new officers without any law enforcement experience means having to wait an extended period of time before they can begin patrolling the town on their own.

Dryfe said two officers with experience had applied for the position that Pixley was ultimately selected for, but withdrew their names from consideration after learning that the town is phasing out a defined-benefits pension in favor of a public employee version of a 401(k).

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