Lemont Police welcome fresh faces to patrol

LEMONT – Two new officers have joined the Lemont Police Department after graduating from the Illinois State Police Academy.

Patricia Sheridan, 24, and Ryan Killian, 25, are working as patrol officers, learning the people and streets of Lemont.

Sheridan is from Chicago but said she was looking for a job in the suburbs.

"It's a different atmosphere," she said. "They're a little bit smaller. You can know everybody you are working with."

Sheridan said she became a police officer because she was looking for a career where she could interact with the public, as opposed to an office job.

Killian, from Joliet, said he has always known he wanted to go into law enforcement.

His father works for the Joliet Police Department, his mother is a dispatcher for the Lincolnway Public Safety Communications Center and his grandfather was an Illinois State Trooper.

Though Killian said he never wavered from that career path, it was still a long process to get his first job.

"Law enforcement right now is a very competitive field to get into," he said. "It's a lot harder to get a quality law enforcement job."

He said that Lemont was one of his top choices, partially from meeting Lemont Police Chief Kevin Shaughnessy at a golf outing.

"It kind of gave me a good feeling about the department," he said. "He seemed like a good guy."

Both Sheridan and Killian said the academy helped prepare them for their new job.

"The academy was a pretty tough lifestyle," Sheridan said. "It was a tough learning experience. It was definitely something worth going through."

Despite his family background in law enforcement, Killian said the academy was where he realized more about the dangers of being a police officer. He said his father also warned him about some of the difficult parts of being a police officer but convinced him that the good parts outweigh them.

"The one thing he kept telling me is that it's a very rewarding career," he said.

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Meet the officers

Lemont Police Officers Ryan Killian and Patricia Sheridan will be sworn in during the July 28 meeting of the Lemont Village Board.