Mars police gain second full-time officer
The Mars Borough police department will soon have a new full-time officer on patrol.
The borough, which hired its first full-time officer, Mark Lint, in December of 2021, has brought officer Brian Novosel on board as its second full-time officer. He will start working full-time on July 11.
Novosel has worked for the department in a part-time capacity since 2013. He has also worked for the Adams Township Police Department part-time.
“I currently work for Highmark Health as a police officer full-time, but I’m resigning there, and I’ll be starting with Mars,” Novosel said.
Novosel grew up in Shaler Township, Allegheny County, but now lives in the borough of Mars. He graduated from the Allegheny County Police Academy in 2009 and started working in Adams in 2011.
He expects a lot of his duties will entail assisting officer-in-charge Mark Lint.
“My responsibilities will be helping Mark with what he needs. We only have one (officer) on at a time anyways, so it’s not like I’m in charge of a shift,” Novosel said.
The move will help the department create a more regular schedule for its part-time officers, borough mayor Gregg Hartung said.
“Our part-timers will now work flexible on the weekends and special events,” Hartung said. “We also have some shifts where they will fill the third shift overnight. It helps us fill our schedule up as more of a three-quarters, almost full-time department instead of just part-time.”
Lint said he feels that hiring Novosel full-time is “a step in the right direction” Having two full-time officers will help the department “ensure continuity,” he explained.
“We’ve had a number of part-time officers, and sometimes the part-time officers would only work one day a week. If you have an incident that needs an investigation, then you would have three or four different officers investigating the same thing,” Lint said. “This will bring some continuity to the department as far as having officers able to continually investigate the same incident, and be present for a length of time in the week instead of individual shifts.”
He is looking forward to the years of experience Novosel brings with him to the role.
“We're moving forward, and the borough has given us their complete support,” Lint said. “We’re focusing on improving our police department, both our personnel and our equipment, and just making it better for the borough of Mars.”
