IN West Jefferson Hills Spring 2018 | Page 60

Borough Hires Three New Police Officers at December Meeting Marcus Costanza, Nick Sell, and John Haas are the Borough’s newest police officers. They were hired by Borough Council at the December meeting. Nick Sell always wanted to be a police officer. However, the star baseball player at North Allegheny High School and Seton Hill University had the opportunity to pursue a professional baseball career first. In 2015, after graduating from Seton Hill with a degree in Criminal Justice, Nick signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers and played professional ball for two seasons. After graduating in 2017 from the Allegheny County Police Training Academy and working part-time for the Ambridge and Franklin Park Police Departments, Officer Sell is very happy to have his first full-time position in Jefferson Hills. “It’s awesome to have this opportunity to be a part of a great police department,” he said. Marcus Costanza always knew he wanted to be a police officer and grew up with a special role model, his father, Ron Costanza, who is a career officer in the Beaver County Sheriff’s Department. After graduating from the Allegheny County Police Academy, Officer Costanza spent four and a half years as a University of Pittsburgh Police Officer and Plain Clothes Investigative Detective. As much as he enjoyed the work, he had his heart set on serving his community and couldn’t be happier to be a member of the Jefferson Hills Police Department. “I’m looking forward to working with our residents and protecting our community,” he said. Officer Costanza and his wife Julia are the proud new parents of a daughter, Vienna. John Haas has wanted to serve his community since he was a little kid growing up in Baldwin Township, and he prepared for his first full-time position as a police officer by a number of endeavors. John served as an EMT in Mt. Lebanon for six years, and served as a part-time officer for McKees Rocks for six months. A graduate of Duquesne University with a BA in Sociology, he earned his police officer certification at the IUP Police Academy at Carnegie Mellon University. Officer Haas said he likes working for Jefferson Hills because he has the opportunity to work in a department that encourages one-on-one interaction with the community. “At the end of the day, I like being in the community and helping people solve a problem when they have one,” he said. 58 WEST JEFFERSON HILLS