Costa Mesa adds an officer

Costa Mesa has welcomed a new police officer to its ranks, the city announced Friday.

Justin Carl Mahaffey graduated from Orange County Sheriff’s Department academy in Tustin on Monday after six months of training, according to a news release.

Mahaffey started working for the CMPD as a jail custody officer in April 2012.

The Police Department later assigned him to attend the academy, where he started as a CMPD recruit on March 4, according the release.

Mahaffey was born in Simi Valley, grew up in Orange County and graduated from Tustin High School.

He joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 2010 and now serves as a reserve Marine working as a multi-channel radio operator out of Miramar.

After a mandatory Marine training event, he’ll start his field training for the department on Sept. 5.

Mahaffey is among the first few officers to join the department since the city announced in April that it was hiring 10 full-time and 10 reserve officers.

The department had not hired an officer since 2008 because of budget and staffing constraints.

In July, Costa Mesa’s human resources department said the department had 12 vacancies for full-time police officers.

— Jeremiah Dobruck

Twitter: @jeremiahdobruck