Police promotions, new hires acknowledged at Peters Township Council meeting
Twenty-two years and one day after he joined the Peters Township Police Department, Gary Orosz was introduced to the public as having been promoted to sergeant.
He actually moved up the ranks in December, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, his promotion ceremony was delayed until Monday’s meeting of township council.
Chief Douglas Grimes, Capt. Jennifer Ford and Capt. Gerald Maloni did the honors on behalf of Orosz and fellow officer Spencer Scott, who now is a corporal. Grimes also introduced the department’s newest officers, Nicole Merrick and Austin Kline.
Orosz came aboard June 27, 1999, after serving five years with West Homestead Borough police. He earned his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Pittsburgh and attended the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Police Academy.
With Peters Township, he has served as detective and field training officer, and is lead coordinator for the Citizens Police Academy. He was promoted to corporal in 2018.
Scott, an Upper St. Clair High School graduate, joined the department in 2018, serving as a firearms instructor, field training officer and lead coordinator for traffic enforcement efforts in the township. He also is a SWAT operator with the South Hills Area Council of Governments’ Special Weapons and Tactics team.
As a member of the Arlington County (Va.) Police Department’s Civil Disturbance Unit, Kline was among the officers called to duty for the riots at the White House in June 2020 and U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, for which he was awarded a ribbon of valor.
He is a native of Springdale and earned his bachelor’s of criminal justice administration degree from Waynesburg University, where he played football as a defensive lineman for the Yellow Jackets. With Arlington County, he also served on the central assault response and crisis intervention teams.
On June 26, Merrick graduated from the IUP Criminal Justice Training Center as class president and valedictorian. She earned her bachelor’s degree in intelligence and national security, and her master’s in intelligence and global security, from Point Park University, where she was president of the Criminal Justice Club.
“She began her law enforcement career as a criminal intelligence analyst with the investigations unit of the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office,” Grimes said. “Most recently, she worked for the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police as an analyst in the crime analyst unit, with operations in the intelligence unit and the real-time crime center.”