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Diverse Group Of Immigrants, Scholastic Athletes, Transfers Among New Paramus Police Officers

Three immigrants and several former scholastic athletes are among 10 men who officially became Paramus police officers this week.

Paramus welcomes 10 new police officers.

Paramus welcomes 10 new police officers.

Photo Credit: Paramus PD / Boyd A. Loving

Here’s a little bit about them:

Born in New York City, Jamie Takahashi is a longtime borough resident who was graduated from Paramus High School and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in economics from Syracuse University.

Takahashi, who speaks both Korean and Japanese,  was then was commissioned into the New York Army National Guard as a transportation officer and is a first lieutenant and executive officer with the 719th Composite Truck Company in Manhattan.

Takahashi joined the Paramus Volunteer Fire Department and became a Special 1 police officer in 2017 before being graduated from the Morris County Police Academy.

Raised in Jersey City, Keith Sampson was graduated from Liberty High School and New Jersey City University and is currently continuing his studies at Thomas Edison State University in Trenton.

Sampson began his career in law enforcement as a state Department of Corrections officer at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.

He was graduated from the Passaic County Police Academy in 2016 and worked for two years with the Jersey City Police Department before becoming a detective, assigned to the Gang Intelligence Unit, with the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office.

Longtime borough resident and Paramus High School graduate Michael Cleary is a U.S. Marine Corps corporal who was honorably discharged before attending San Diego State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree with Summa Cum Laude honors.

Cleary worked with the Mahwah Police Department for two years after being graduated from the Bergen County Police Academy as a class commanding officer. 

Born in Guyana (South America), Clario K Sampson moved to Orange and then later Newark and received his bachelor’s degree from Montclair State University, where he played football.

He was graduated from the New Jersey State Police Municipal Academy and received several accolades while working as a Newark police officer.

Raised in Fair Lawn, Kevin Osback was a three-sport varsity athlete and captain of the football, lacrosse and track teams at Fair Lawn High School. He got a bachelor’s degree in communications, with a minor in criminal justice, from Monmouth University, where he also played Division 1 lacrosse all four years.

Osback completed the Morris County Police Academy in 2019 and was a Roxbury Township police officer the past two years.

Born in Peru, Cesar Hurtado came to the United States at 2 years old.

He was raised in Fort Lee, was graduated from Fort Lee High School and obtained an associate’s degree in criminal justice from Bergen Community College before obtaining his bachelor’s in the same major at Rutgers.

Hurtado was then accepted into the Passaic County Police Academy Alternate Route Program and joined the Pequannock Township Police Department in 2017 after graduation. He also speaks Spanish.

Born in Westwood, Jason Hrbek was graduated from Westwood Regional High School and then West Chester University of Pennsylvania with a degree in criminal justice before attending the Essex County College Public Safety Academy. He became a Paramus police dispatcher in 2012 and a supervisory dispatcher in 2016.

Lifelong Paramus resident and Paramus High School graduate Vincent LaBarbiera attended William Paterson University and Fairleigh Dickinson University and worked as a lifeguard at the borough pool.

LaBarbiera is a hazardous materials tech and lieutenant with Paramus Fire Company 3 who became a Paramus Class 1 special police officer in 2016. A graduate of the Morris County Police Academy, he became a Hudson County Sheriff’s investigator in 2018.

Another lifelong borough resident, Sean Casey, was graduated in 2010 from Paramus High School, where he played varsity baseball.

Casey was later graduated from Montclair State University with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and in 2011 joined the borough fire department, continuing as a member.

Casey attended the Essex County Police Academy in 2018 through the alternate route program, became a borough dispatcher in 2014 and a supervisory dispatcher two years later.

Born in Montenegro (Europe), Slavko Bajovic moved to Cliffside Park, where he was graduated from high school.

He continued his studies – and scholastic basketball career -- at Montclair State University before attending Rutgers, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.

Bajovic began his law enforcement career as a Class 1 special police officer in Cliffside Park before becoming a Class 2 special in Hackensack and then an officer the New Jersey Institute of Technology Police Department.

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