“This is my third year at Waterford High School.”
In August 2024, Officer Malbaurn had the opportunity to retire, but instead chose to stay at Waterford because he says he’s grown good connections with all the students and staff.
He’s originally from Groton, Connecticut, but in 2004, Malbaurn and his wife, Jennifer, bought their first house in Waterford. Malbaurn now lives in Montville with his three sons, Matthew, Chase, and Cole.
After Malbaurn graduated high school in June of 1990, he enlisted in the Air Force in November of 1990.
Malbaurn was a part of the Air Force for nine years. He left because he says he fulfilled his requirements and wanted to focus on his career at the Waterford PD.
He went to Mohegan Community College, now known as Three Rivers Community College, for one year before transferring to Southern Connecticut State University for four years. He graduated Southern in 1996 with a degree in sports physiology and a minor in nutrition.
Sports physiology was something for him to fall back on if being a police officer didn’t work out for him. He says a lot of police officers after five years realized the job is not for them, and now they only have a degree in criminal justice. His initial career choice was always law enforcement.
“While I was in college I did an internship; I did chiropractic therapy rehab with an office down in Woodbridge, Connecticut, and he thought I’d be a good chiropractor, so I applied to chiropractic schools but I needed certain prerequisites, which is why I went back to school in 1998 to start that program to get my prerequisites to go to chiropractic school,” Malbaurn states.
“Meanwhile, in 1998, I took a police exam by the LEC (Law Enforcement Council) out of Norwich that towns throughout southeastern Connecticut could pull from. In June of 1999, Waterford called me for an interview. On July 9th of 1999, I started the police academy. I graduated from the police academy in November of 1999,” he continues.
While applying for the position of police officer, Officer Malbaurn was a bicycle mechanic at Mystic Cycle Centre. During this time, he was going back to college to get his masters degree in chemistry at Southern Connecticut State University.
Officer Malbaurn used to be a big fitness person. He won a number of triathlons. His main sport was cycling, so he owned a lot of bikes.
Back in high school, his junior year, he was known as a goofball and hated English. His English teacher was also his wrestling coach. He’d get kicked out of that class all the time and would never finish his homework. He ended up failing his junior year of English, so he either had to stay back or do summer school. Because he wrestled though, his teacher failed him for the last quarter but passed him with a D for the full year so he got to pass junior year.
From almost failing his junior year of high school to his job being mainly in a high school, Malbuarn says, “I think it gives me a lot of insight on how kids here at the school should apply themselves. I can easily tell the difference between kids struggling in a class and kids just not caring about doing any of the work.”
“My current job is a police officer with the town of Waterford but I’m assigned as a school resource officer here at the high school. So my overall job is the safety of the students and staff.”
