TUPPER LAKE — There are two new village police officers in town, and they share a lot in common.

While Keegan Muldowney hails from Saranac Lake and Connor Hesseltine from Chateaugay, they both moved to Tupper Lake in the past few months with their fiancees. Both said they took the civil service exam in several North Country counties, but when contacted by Franklin County in spring 2018 with the Tupper Lake job opportunity, they could not turn it down.

They started the academy on June 4, did some field training in the village through the fall and graduated Nov. 14. They’ve now been patrolling on their own for around two months.

Hesseltine’s interest in law enforcement was piqued in high school, and he decided to major in criminal justice and homeland security in college. Before this he was working in corrections in Vermont.

“I decided I’d much rather do police work than be in corrections,” Hesseltine said.

Muldowney has both sides of the law in his family. One of his cousins is a captain in the city of Plattsburgh police, another cousin works narcotics for the New York Police Department, and he just recently learned that his great-great-great-grandfather, James Muldowney, was in the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1845.

His father is an attorney. He said he was always interested in legal system.

“People ask me why I didn’t want to be a lawyer,” Muldowney said. “The short answer is because, they have to read too much. The real answer is I’d rather be on the proactive side rather than the reactive side.”

Unfortunately, he learned that there is lots of paperwork in police work.

“Nobody tells you about the paperwork until it’s too late to turn back,” Muldowney said.

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Public perception

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Both talked about how their jobs impact their lives outside of work, and how the public’s perception of them is important to them. They each mentioned shopping and eating out with their families, focusing on how they want their interactions there to be positive.

“If you’re just out there to write tickets and arrest every single person, you probably wouldn’t last too long,” Hesseltine said. “It’s pretty hard to go walking into the store when every single person there hates you.

“You’re dealing with other human beings. You try to be as compassionate with them as you can be,” he said. “But there’s times that you can’t.”

Both said it can also be hard, living a public life where many interactions with people can be negative.

“The most difficult part of the job for me is being with people on their worst days,” Muldowney said. “Not knowing people in town is tough as a new police officer.”

Hesseltine echoed that same sentiment.

“Probably the hardest part is going from being a civilian to sometimes having to go out there and having to ruin people’s day by giving them a ticket, to going to a call that involves a death or something,” Hesseltine said. “Before this point in my life, I’ve never had to deal with that. Now, it’s something that I see quite a bit of.

“I’m pretty lucky. My fiancee … her father is a retired detective sergeant out of St. Lawrence County. So when I go home, she’s always very supportive.”

Muldowney’s fiancee also comes from a law enforcement family.

Both said the high points of the job are hanging out with kids at the schools, playing basketball, getting high-fives in the hallways and talking with them.

“I think it’s really important to spend a lot of time there as law enforcement. That’s a critical time in these kids’ lives. They’re easily influenced, and we want them to see law enforcement in a positive light,” Muldowney said. “It’s good to have a foundation already, a rapport built with them from the school, so when they see us on a day that may be not so good, they know who we are, they recognize our faces, and they know we’re there to help.”

Despite the hard days, Hesseltine said he sees his job as having an overall good impact in the village.

“I think there’s definitely people who do not enjoy any type of police, including village,” Hesseltine said.

“But I think the majority of people in Tupper Lake enjoy having a police department.”

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Futures at department

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There are now 10 officers at the Tupper Lake Police Department, which has struggled to keep a full staff in recent years.

Muldowney said the sergeants have been good teachers and that they were encouraged to learn quick and get on road by themselves.

“In a small department there is no room for babying the new officers,” Muldowney said.

He prefers it that way. Hesseltine also said he enjoys working in a small department, because it is nice to work a case from start to finish.

Both said they plan to stay with the department for the long haul. They want to look into doing more drug investigations, which they said is important in the North Country. For now, though, they said they are focused on building experience at the department.