UPDATED 6:30 p.m. July 27: An incomplete version of this article was initially posted on Wednesday morning.
By Paula McKibben for the Bluffton Police Department
“I want to be the officer who takes care of the other officers,” commented Corporal Lonny Kent when asked why he chose this time to retire from the Bluffton Police Department.
Graduating from Ada High School in 1977, he obviously is not old by today’s standards, but after 31 years on the job, he does not want others worrying about him because of his age while he is on the job.
Lonny took up law enforcement, not because he had a lifelong yearning for it, but because his father, who had been too short to meet the height requirements for law enforcement when he was looking for a career, suggested that his son take a look at this field.
Lonny was tired of splitting the year between factory work and construction work. He had had a good relationship with the Ada Police Department while growing up, and since his wife had just finished nursing school, he figured, “Maybe I’ll just become a police officer.”
As a result, he graduated from the Ohio Peace Officer Basic Training program in 1991 and began in Bluffton that same year.
And how has being a police officer worked out for Lonny? “I love it! Every day is different. No two days are the same.” And the greatest part is that there is no real schedule. “My car is my office.”
Over time, Lonny’s position has included mundane activities such as routine patrols of the area; training other officers in firearms and TASER; being the custodian of the evidence room; and vehicle maintenance scheduler.
More interesting tasks have included interacting every day with people while on and off duty; averting crimes such as theft, drugs and rape; mediating domestic disputes; and developing scenarios for practices.
An example of a scenario he developed was to obtain a car from the junkyard and encourage officers to shoot at the glass to see how the glass affected their ability to judge where their shots were going and to witness how the shots damaged the glass.
Was all of this education and training necessary to handle crime in Bluffton? According to Lonny, crime in Bluffton is a “little of everything, probably more than a lot of people realize.” Drugs, like marijuana, crack, cocaine and fentanyl actually come in from the interstate when the person transporting them is passing through to grab a bite or stay the night. As a result of all of those “routine patrols,” officers usually recognize when “a car doesn’t belong in Bluffton.”
Courses that he took to help prepare local police officers for situations like these included Advanced Instructor Training, Firearms, Stops and Approaches and Building Searches, along with a variety of continuing education programs.
While advancing his education in law enforcement, he garnered several awards: the Law Enforcement Officer of the Month from the Lima Underwriters’ Association, twice; The Law Enforcement Officer of the Year from the Bluffton Exchange Club; The Law Enforcement Excellence Award from the Ohio Department of Public Safety; and the Most Impaired Driving Arrests Award among Bluffton Police Officers from the Mothers Against Drunk Driving of Allen/Putnam Counties, 11 times.
These awards highlight how Lonny views police work: “You are there to help people, helping that person who needs help.” For instance, “When there’s a car accident, and there’s someone who is uninjured but scared to death, especially a child, get into the backseat with the person and provide comfort.”
For this same reason, Lonny reads a couple of papers daily so that he has common topics for conversation in order to interact with all people.
Additionally, Lonny served as junior high track assistant and head coach at Bluffton Middle School for 13 years. Here he was able to develop real relationships with the kids who referred to him as just “Lonny” before they entered those peer-influenced high school years.
The comfort, the commonality, and the relationships that Lonny strives to provide are a result of his belief that a police officer must have “instinct.” It requires the right attitude and the ability to be a great actor in order to deal with people in tough situations.
Instinct helps an officer to react well “in bad situations when you have kids involved,” as well as in situations when an officer needs to deal with someone who has had a really bad day or someone who finds fault with everything.
An officer also must use instinct to deal with death, “the one thing I hate the most.” On well-being checks, when the department receives a call that someone hasn’t been seen in a few days, he has administered CPR and AED (automated external defibrillator). Other times, he discovers a person who has died and must make the calls for that situation.
Lonny emphasized, “There’s so much more to law enforcement. You have to have sympathy and empathy.”
However, the job has undergone changes during his time here, good and bad.
One of the good changes is that officers now do not have to buy their own handguns. Those are provided. Available now are weapons that are less lethal than guns, such as TASERs, batons and pepper spray. Technology has been good for the department, but he would like to see more tech in weapons, lights and optics.
Another change was the addition of a bike patrol, which he helped to implement.
Finally, the addition of a second person at night meant that back-up is available much sooner than when there was just one person at night and back-up would be 10-20 minutes away.
Changes for the worse head the list with the attitude of society—"what you can say to someone and what you can’t say to someone.” As a result, some members of the public have negative views of the police, and a small number of politicians seem to use or bend the actions of the police to suit their agendas.
Law enforcement itself is experiencing changes. Officers in Bluffton work closely with several other departments: Pandora Police, Ohio State Highway Patrol, and the sheriff departments of Allen County, Hancock County and Hardin County. Lonny commented, “I was always on the interstate with them as back-up.” He misses the camaraderie these groups shared when they would meet sometimes at 4 a.m. for breakfast at Denny’s, an event that doesn’t happen anymore.
Although he is retiring, don’t think for one minute that he is done working, not yet. He plans to live in South Carolina part of the year, coming back on a regular basis to be an adjunct teacher for classes in law enforcement for the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy at Owens Community College. “With teaching, I can give back by sharing experiences.” Previously, he has had four years’ experience teaching at Rhodes and Owens as an adjunct.
And where will he stay when he returns? Why, with his children and grandchildren. He wants the time to be able to enjoy his family.
“Now, as I look back, I guess I was made to be a police officer. I wear my heart on my sleeve, and I love joking around with people.” But, most importantly, he loved how his job enabled him to interact with people, to make a difference in their lives.
The Village of Bluffton, Chief Ryan Burkholder, and Lonny’s children, Bryan, Casandra and Candice, will be hosting a reception for Corporal Kent on August 27 from 3-6 p.m. at the Bluffton Sportsmen’s Club.
