Lynn welcomes new police officer

LYNN – A new officer joined the ranks of the police department Tuesday afternoon, marking one of the first transfers into the city in years.Lynn native Pablo Figueroa graduated from English High School in 1997, and served three years in the U.S. Army and one year in the Massachusetts National Guard before signing on to the Springfield police department.”I wanted to join the Lynn police department, it was one of my first choices, so I took the test, but they weren’t hiring at the time,” Figueroa said. “Springfield ended up calling me and I spent three years there as an officer.”While the two cities have similarities, Springfield’s police department has approximately 487 officers for the city of 150,000, compared to Lynn’s roughly 176 in a city of 90,000. Four more officers are scheduled to join the Lynn department in July.Police Chief Kevin Coppinger, who was also a transfer to the department in 1985, said there have only been a handful of officers expressing interest in transferring since.”It’s mostly because of the residency issue that we’ve lost officers who were interested in coming here,” he said.Figueroa, however, was not one to shy away from moving to the city. With a young daughter, his girlfriend and extended family living in the city, he found himself wanting to move home.”It’s been tough being away,” he said. “It will be a transition coming back, but it won’t be that strange to me.”Coppinger said Figueroa will be an asset to the department not only because he speaks Spanish, but also because he can hit the ground running as a trained officer, therefore bypassing the need to be trained and saving the city money.”Instead of having to wait six months for him to go through the academy, the city gets the immediate benefit and savings,” he said.Figueroa will begin working next week.