Meet Officer Jonathan Lyons: One of the Oakland Police Department's Newest Members
Officer Jonathan Lyons is going to have a big year.
This will be his first year as a member of the Oakland police force. He will be married in an open-air seashore wedding in May. He has taken his place in a long line of family members and good friends who have inspired him to serve.
“My maternal uncles and four cousins were in the Marines, Air Force and Navy serving our country,” he said. “I have 15 good friends that I grew up with who went into police and fire work. They all are proud in being part of the greater good, and that inspired me because keeping Americans safe is big to me.”
Lyons’ father worked in software security for 30 years, while his mother worked as a pre-school teacher for 25 years. Both his younger sisters are teachers.
“I graduated from Cedar Grove High School in 2008,” he said. “From there I went to James Madison University in Virginia and got my B.S. in manufacture engineering. After graduation, my first job was in corporate quality assurance. Then I worked at Nabisco in Fair Lawn as a production supervisor for 40 employees.”
But signs of industrial outsourcing that would affect Nabisco’s production staff were in the air, so he left corporate life to travel a different road.
“I took the Civil Service exam and passed in 2016,” he explained. “In the summer of 2017, I attended the Bergen Police Academy. From there, I went to work for the City of Hoboken’s Police Department for two-and-a-half years. Four months into the job, I encountered and arrested a shoplifter with a sawed-off shotgun who was sent to prison. For that, I was awarded a Medal of Valor Award and was promoted to the Detective Bureau.”
“I met Kasey just after I had to shave my head to enter the Police Academy. I figured if she still liked me with no hair, she was the one.”
They got engaged in the summer of 2020. His fiancee works for Loreal Cosmetics Global Marketing Department.
“We live in Jersey City now and our plan is to go west in New Jersey,” Lyons said. “Someone alerted me that there were openings here, so I interviewed four times, met with the town council, saw a psychiatrist, took two drug tests and a virus test, and was hired on December 10th 2020. I went out on a limb. I went for it and never looked back.”
When asked how the job of policing in Oakland is different from police work in Hoboken, Lyons noted the challenges in a big city are often gang related and have to do with drug sales. In Oakland, a small town, many of the challenges have to do with major highway traffic passing through.
“Oakland has a small-town feel,” he said. “ I am getting familiar with store owners who have pride in their businesses. They are happy to see you, have confidence in you. They are quick to say good things about Oakland. Also, I am an outdoor nut who loves fishing. I want to settle here or nearby.”
Looking back at the last few years, Lyons sees them as years of growth where he has had to exercise his ability to embrace a new journey. As for his future, he is happy with the idea there is room to advance, to grow.
“I love being a member of the police force,” he said. “I want to work my way up. Detective work is appealing to me, experiencing a crime from its commission and determining who are the suspects to question. It’s fulfilling to provide justice.”