Frazer police hire 5 new officers

Frazer hired four recent police academy graduates and a soon-to-be graduate to replace five part-timers who resigned to take jobs elsewhere over the past several months.

With the new hires, Frazer now has 10 part-time officers. Chief Terry Kuhns and Sgt. Aaron Scott are the only full-timers.

Police departments across Western Pennsylvania are increasingly relying on part-time officers as tightening budgets limit how many full-timers can be hired, but dwindling enrollment at local police academies is making officers harder to find, the Tribune-Review reported in March.

Despite that, Kuhns said his department hasn’t really struggled to find applicants. It received about 20 applications for the five open positions.

He said it has helped that former Frazer police officers recommend the department to potential candidates.

“Without a doubt, the vast majority of applications we get are referrals to us from previous Frazer officers.”

For example, after former Frazer Officer Rebekah Schultz was hired to a full-time job with South Fayette police, Kuhns said she went to police academies to talk with cadets about her experiences in Frazer.

“In her recruiting, Rebekah told the candidates all the opportunities she’s had here to conduct criminal investigations,” Kuhns said.

She spoke with the graduating classes of each of the officers who were hired.

Four of the new hires graduated from the Allegheny County Police Academy and Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Criminal Justice Training Center. They include Grant Mularski, Nathan Oesterling, Joshua Rosenblatt and Nicholas Walter.

The fifth hire, Shelby Hubert, is still attending the Municipal Police Academy at Robert Morris University, according to Kuhns. She will graduate June 29.

Kuhns said it’s not unusual for a cadet who hasn’t yet graduated from an academy to be “pre-hired” by a police department.

“It’s a conditional offer of hiring based on (if you) graduate from the academy successfully, and pass your Municipal Police Officers’ Education and Training Commission certification exam, which the four others have already completed,” he said.

The new hires will spend a minimum of six weeks in field training, after which they will work a minimum of four shifts per week as regularly scheduled officers, Kuhns said.

Part-timers in Frazer start out making $14.50 an hour.