The passing of one of our beloved police dogs always leaves a hole in the Vancouver Police K9 section, and in the last year, several retired dogs have passed over to Rainbow Bridge.
While most expect the dog’s handler to be devastated, many do not realize the impact these four legged officers have on the handler’s loved ones. These dogs are not just working animals, they are an important part in the everyday lives of the entire family.
Retired PD Jake recently lost his short battle with a very aggressive form of cancer. Not only did his handler grieve when PD Jake died, but so did his wife. When faced with early retirement as a result of a back injury, Jake became Lori’s dog and learned to turn the title of ‘In Service Police Dog’ over to his handler’s new partner, PD Teak. The two dogs even became buddies with one ruling the roost at home while the other continued to serve the citizens of Vancouver.
You may wonder why I’m going on about Jake when at other times I pay only a short tribute when a police dog dies. Well, you see, Jake was a part of my family as well. From the time he was a seven week old ball of fluff with needle teeth to the time he was ready to train as a police dog, Jake lived with my family. He spent his days playing with our young children, terrorizing the cat and chewing every single shrub in our garden. He was a complete joy to have around.
He was also one hell of a police dog.
In his first year of service PD Jake was responsible for 49 arrests, with a final total of 150 arrests by the time he was forced to retire. His will to catch bad guys never wavered, only his body’s ability to do so did. Even then, his friendly disposition made him a favorite for dog shows, and he seemed to love the attention of a dozen little hands petting him when surrounded by children.
PD Jake – you will never be forgotten.
Jake at 8 wks
PD Raider, recently retired due to a back injury, passed away yesterday while at the Dog Squad. It is never easy to lose one of our canine partners, particularly when the loss is sudden and unexpected.
His name will be added to the list of those Police Service Dogs who have served their handlers, the VPD, and the citizen’s of Vancouver.
Raider will forever be remembered as a ‘Guardian of the Night’.
RIP PD Raider
01/09/30 – 09/06/02
Memorial - PSD Chip Hope, British Columbia
Since witnessing the death of one of our police dogs in 2006, I have been researching the laws and regulations surrounding the current status of cruelty to animals. Specifically, how our Canadian laws protect our police service animals. Here’s where we stand as of May 2009:
Section 445 of the Criminal Code of Canada:
Every one who willfully and without lawful excuse
A) kills, maims, wounds, poisons or injures dogs, birds, or animals that are not cattle and are kept for a lawful purpose, or B) places poison in such a posotion that it may easily be consumed by dogs, birds or animals that are not cattle and are kept for a lawful purpose,
Is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction
As you can see, there are no laws in place to protect police dogs and police horses. While I’m of the opinion that our laws surrounding cruelty to ALL animals needs to be improved, animals used in law enforcement should have an additional level of protection. We as society ask so much of our police service animals and they give of themselves without question.
In most cases, police dogs and horses are issued a badge number by their respective police agencies and serve their communities along side their human partners. They are active members of law enforcement, yet they are treated as simple items of property by the law if mistreated, injured or killed while performing the tasks required of them. Police dogs and horses are not tools to be thrown away if damaged – they are living, breathing creatures who form a bond with those around them.
Several times over the last two decades an amendment to our Criminal Code has been proposed before Parliament, asking for an additional level of protection for our police service animals. Each time, the proposed bill has fallen through the cracks when something ‘more important’ is tabled or when there is an upcoming election.
Back in 2006 I wrote a letter to my member of parliament outlining the proposed bill. The federal government sent me response stating there already was a law to protect animals, and as such, nothing else was going to be done.
I’m sorry. Our laws as they stand are not good enough. Not when you consider the following cases:
- February 24, 2006 – Toronto, Ontario – Police Service Horse Brigadier and his rider were run down in a deliberate hit and run. Reports were the driver of the suspect vehicle intentionally aimed at the horse and rider after being asked to stop by the mounted officer. Brigadier suffered massive injuries and had to be euthanized on the street. The police officer suffered non-life threatening injuries. A suspect was later arrested.
- January 23, 2006 - Vancouver, British Columbia – Police Service Dog Nitro was killed when the auto theft suspect he was apprehending jumped onto a moving train in an effort to get away from the dog. Nitro was swept under the train and killed instantly. His handler was not injured. A suspect was later arrested.
- June 23, 1998 - Edmonton, Alberta – Police Service Dog Caesar was killed after being shot by a suicidal man The man was waving a shotgun and walking towards an occupied elementary school. When the man threatened police and citizens, Caesar was sent and was able to distract the man, allowing officers to move in. However, the man shot Caesar at point blank range, killing the dog instantly. The man was subsequently shot by police. No citizens or human police officers were injured.
- September 13, 1996 - Hope, British Columbia – Police Service Dog Chip was killed after being stabbed by a suspect wanted for several offences. Chip and his handler had tracked the suspect through a heavily forested area and located the suspect hiding in the bush. During the arrest, the suspect stabbed Chip in the neck, and stabbed the officer several times. Chip died at the scene, trying to protect his handler. The officer survived his very serious injuries. A suspect was later arrested.
All of these events had deadly outcomes for the police service animals and there were outpourings of support from the general public after each one of these tragedies. Police dogs and horses are highly trained and valuable members of the police forces they serve. They are partners to their human counterparts, and in these above instances saved the lives of their partners.
The stories that people do not hear about are the ones of how often our Vancouver Police Dogs are struck, punched, and kicked during the course of their duties. Several times over the last couple of years our police service dogs have protected their handlers and have been injured in the process.
Police officers and police agencies have come before me to try and amend our current laws, and all have met with an insurmountable task. I’m prepared to take up this fight once again, and have started reaching out to agencies across the country. The public support is there. The knowledge of our current system has increased. Other officers have already joined me.
So here’s what I’m asking – send me an e-mail at sandra@behindtheblueline.ca or leave a comment if you would like to help.
There is no wall too high, or obstacle too tough for sheer will and determination. If our government has the ability to change laws for others, they have to ability to assist us with this very important task.
A few weeks ago a reader asked me how I came to name my four legged partner. I think he was hoping for a simple answer but it was a bit more complicated than that, and brings us to this post.
When Hondo came to Canada his name was ‘Oleg’. Having a foreign sounding name was part of the package, and it is still listed on Hondo’s pedigree. But there was no way the ‘Oleg’ handle was going to stay.
If you know anything about police officer’s senses of humour, then it should come as no surprise that the tag on Hondo’s kennel was changed from ‘Oleg’ to ‘Lego’ by some jokester/handler shortly after my dog arrived, and I have my suspicions on who was playing the name game (the beauty of it all is that he’ll never know when I’m going to get him back 
)
Naming your police dog is serious business. I had done my research and already had a list of names and of all the possibles, Hondo was the perfect fit.
Not just because Hondo was a character in a John Wayne movie and the name appealed to my country-western loving hubby, and not because Hondo was also a character played by Samuel L. Jackson in the police movie SWAT (I’m a SLJ fan). The real drive behind naming my dog was to honour another police dog who had died in the line of duty.
VPD Hondo gets his namesake from PSD Hondo of the Hillsboro Police Department, Oregon, USA.
On March 12, 1997, only days after receiving the Silver Medal of Valour for taking down a knife-wielding suspect, Police Service Dog Hondo was shot and killed during a police stand off. He is the only Hillsboro Police K9 to have been killed in the line of duty.
After researching the story behind Hillsboro Hondo’s story, and after VPD Hondo and I completed our training, I got in contact with Sgt. Bruce Kelley, who had been the brave dog’s handler. We spoke about the bond we have with our dogs and he related how much these dogs really mean to the communities they serve - to honour the sacrifice PSD Hondo made, the City of Hillsboro opened the ‘Hondo Dog Park’ in 2007, which was the very first park of it’s kind to be opened in the city. How cool is that?
Memorial to Hillsboro PD Hondo
The plaque above sits at the entrance to the park, and is dedicated to Hillsboro PD Hondo. Yes, the writing is very tiny in the photo, so here is what it says:
Honoring the memory of K-9 Hondo, who served the Hillsboro Police Department and Community.
End of Watch: March 12, 1997.
The Working Dog
My eyes are your eyes,
to watch and protect you and yours.
My ears are your ears,
to hear and detect evil minds in the dark.
My nose is your nose,
to scent the invader of your domain.
And so you may live,
my life is also yours.
And that, my friends, is what’s in a name.
PSD Hondo
I don’t usually post on weekends, but today is my partner’s birthday. I know, I know…it’s a bit sappy, but all the doggy people out there will appreciate this.
Happy Birthday to PSD Hondo!
Now we’re off to work - the best present he could get today would be to apprehend a ‘bad guy’ (and there’s not too much sappy about that).
PSD Bronco
The Vancouver Police Department said good-bye to a loyal member yesterday.
PD Bronco retired from active police dog duty within the last few years, and lived out his life with his handler, Sgt. Greg Meyerhoff and his family. His name will be added to list of those Police Service Dogs who served their handlers, the department, and the citizens of Vancouver.
Bronco will forever be remembered as a ‘Guardian of the Night’.
RIP PD Bronco
95/08/15 – 09/03/04
Yesterday, Monday, February 9th, 2009, saw two handlers say good-bye to their retired partners. PD Spiker and PD Jackal retired from active police dog duty within the last few years, and lived out their lives with their handlers and their families. Thier names will be added to list of those Police Service Dogs who served their handlers, the department, and the citizen’s of Vancouver.
Spiker and Jackal will forever be remembered as ‘Guardians of the Night’.
Insp. Weilbach & PSD Kira
The following incident was related to me by Inspector Guy Weilbach (pictured above) of the South African Police Service.
He and his partner, Police Service Dog Kira, are members of the Pretoria Dog Unit, and in mid-June of 2008 they were involved in an incident that saw the loss of one of their own. In sharing his experience, Inspector Weilbach proves police officers have to be ever vigilant.
Senior Cop Killed in Ambush
South Africa has had a spate of ATM bombings where commercial explosives are used to blow open the safes of ATM machines. Usually, the suspects are between ten and fifteen in number. All are armed with AK47’s and at some scenes they have used a Light Machine Gun (Similar to the American M60). They use fast cars like the Audi A4 or the BMW 330i Ext for the getaway. They hit in the early hours of the morning. They do not hesitate to shoot anyone who confronts them.
One situation that we were involved in was during June 2008. We were in a field helping the local police station tracking housebreakers with the help of Kira. We found the stolen property that the suspects dumped after hearing or seeing us. The suspects ran to a main road where a vehicle was waiting for them and sped off.
We all (4 of us and 2 dogs) walked back to our vehicles and we talked for a while like police officers can do at 02:00 in the morning. We received a call that there was a person tampering with an ATM at one of the filling stations nearby. We answered the call as it was about 1 km from us. My crew and I (with Kira and Zoe) drove in front and the two police officers from the local police station drove behind us. I did not activate the vehicle emergency lights or sirens as there was no traffic and it was in a residential area.
The ATM was at a filling station next to a shopping mall. I drove down the road with the shopping mall on my right side and was approaching the filling station when I saw movement from the corner of my eye. When I looked, I saw a person standing in the shadows and saw the familiar shape of a AK47 magazine. I immediately knew it was an ambush.
The guy stepped forward and I saw the muzzle flash from the AK47. Training kicked in and I gunned my Police vehicle to the floor because I knew that there would be more shots fired. I turned by back to my door to expose my bulletproof vest as much as possible to the oncoming rounds, and I lowered my head under the dash of the vehicle. I just kept on going straight. As my vehicle went past the filling station the ATM detonated, hitting my vehicle with shrapnel. I just kept on going. I could hear rounds hitting the vehicle and saw sparks in front of me as rounds were hitting the road. I crossed a road and turned onto a side road behind some houses and stopped.
My partner and I sat there for a second and checked if we were hit and got out to check the dogs. Luckily we were all okay. The dogs sat up straight knowing that some serious sh*t just happened. My crew and I grabbed our assault rifles (5.56mm x 45 mm) and moved tactically to the corner to assess the situation. We could not see the other police vehicle that was behind us. The street was filled with white smoke from the explosion, and the suspects kept on firing. I could see the movement of people but could not identify a target. I knew the other police officers were somewhere in the cloud of smoke. We did not risk firing and maybe hitting one of our colleagues. The suspects then sped off and my crew and I took chase. They had a well planned escape route and we lost them. When we returned to the scene we found one of the police officers was shot in the head. It was a terrible ordeal.
Kira and myself carry on trying to catch bad guys. We have been in some other shooting incidents here and there and been involved in a vehicle accident once. But that is the life of a dog handler in South Africa. We have to go in where the others don’t want to.
Thank you, Insp. Weilbach, for sharing your story with us. I’m sure I speak for all police officers when I say we are very sorry to hear of the loss of your comrade, Inspector Jaco Botha, 37, of the Pretoria Police Service.
Full news coverage of this incident can be read at The Pretoria News.
In April 2006, after months of training, PSD Hondo and I were finally ready to hit the road. All the years of hard work had finally culminated with Hondo and I deploying on our first shift as a bona fide K9 team.
Nervous? Me? Noooo, not at all.
Not since my first shift as a brand new recruit had I experienced the sweaty palms, racing pulse and cracking radio voice. Excited I was finally living my dream, and terrified I would somehow make a mistake, I drove around getting used to my new call sign, Kilo 84, and trying to regain my composure. Overall, I’d been doing a decent job until the night decided to throw me a ‘outta-the-frying-pan-and-into-the-fire’ type of call.
It was the middle of the night, and I was stopped at a red light when the flash of headlights briefly illuminated the interior of my SUV. Then again, twice more, like the warning beacon of a lighthouse. At the same time, the squeal of tires snapped my attention out the passenger side window, and there in the parking lot beside me, was a small red Honda Civic. The Honda’s headlights flashed as the car spun in tight little circles, tires screaming down rubber in a series of donuts.
Apparently, cops love donuts, and if the driver of the Honda wanted my attention, he definitely had it.
A quick check of the licence plate revealed the car was on file as stolen, and when the Honda left the parking lot a few seconds later, I was behind it, all of my nervousness gone. As I waited for backup units to arrive in the area, the suspect driver decided to try and stack the cards in his favour by cutting off a city bus and turning down a side street. I had to wait for the bus to finish trundling through the intersection before executing a similar manoeuvre, and by the time I completed the turn, all that was left of the Honda was a flash of brake lights two blocks down. It quickly became apparent there was no way I was going to catch up with the Honda, and when I took my eyes off the car for a moment in order to clear an intersection, it disappeared.
Not good.
Hoping to spot the Honda’s brake lights again, I drove in the direction the car had been travelling in. But it wasn’t brake lights I spotted, it was smoke. And skid marks. And a demolished street sign. Following a trail of destruction, I found the Honda, resting on it’s roof in someones side yard. All the windows had been blown out, and thin tendrils of smoke rose from the revving engine. I jumped out of my truck and ran to the car, thinking the driver would be injured and suspended upside down by his seat belt. Imagine my surprise when I found an empty passenger compartment. My only thought as I ran back to my truck to get Hondo was ‘You have got to be kidding me…’
The smoking, upside down car almost proved to be too much for a very new police dog (we had never seen this in a training scenario), but Hondo was able to keep his wits about him and he acquired a track away from the car. For the next half an hour, Hondo tracked the car thief through yards, over fences and across a golf course. It was not until the track ended in a parking lot that we had to admit defeat when it became clear the suspect had made good his escape in another vehicle.
This story doesn’t end with ‘the suspect in custody’. No one was hurt, and with the exception of one street sign, a section of lawn, one sapling and a five year old Honda, nothing was damaged. It does end with an example of the driving habits of car thieves – these guys think they’re of the Andretti vintage when they most definitely are not – and shows why we should all do more to combat auto theft.
And not every case a police dog team deploys on will result in an arrest – this truth was hammered home to me that night. But I can guarantee you every case Hondo and I deploy on will be treated as if we are about to make the arrest of the century. You’ve got my word on it.
A while back, a young man made the poor decision to steal a minivan. John (not his real name) drove around Vancouver in his stolen van until he caught the attention of two officers in a police car. They conducted a traffic stop, and John pulled over. John must have realised he was about to get caught, because he zoomed away as the officers approached his window. The officers hopped back into their police car and gave chase. However, with our stringent policies surrounding vehicle pursuits, coupled with the fact the van had not yet been reported stolen, the officers were required to stop pursing the van and John was able to get away.
But not for long.
In his haste to try and get rid of the stolen van, John tried to abandon it. In doing so, he made his second bad decision of the night - the lane John chose to dump the van in was adjacent to the police station.
Two different officers coming on shift saw John as he parked the stolen van, and they attempted to arrest him. Without radios (they had not yet picked up their radios or police car) they had no way of knowing John had just fled from a traffic stop. John was able to drive away, this time dragging one of the officers for a short distance. As he raced out of the lane, John’s decision making entered the ’bad things happen in three’s’ realm when he narrowly avoided t-boning the police car that had originally spotted him.
So ensued another brief pursuit. The officers in the police car were again instructed to stop pursuing (at this point, no one knew John had dragged another officer or that the on-foot guys had tried to arrest him), and John was able to get away. Again.
As this was all happening, PSD Hondo and I were driving into the area to see if we could be of assistance. When the pursuit was terminated a second time, the police unit broadcast that John was last seen headed in my direction. I pulled over, turned my headlights off, and sat there in my unmarked SUV. I heard John before I saw him; the sound was similar to that of the space shuttle on takeoff, and I knew he was getting close.
John blipped passed me at more than double the speed limit, barely in control of the van as he careened down the street and through a stop sign. Then John proved his driving prowess by augering the van into the back of a construction trailer parked on the side of the road. In an impressive explosion of smoke and debris the van literally flew through the air, coming to rest another half a block down. The entire front end was gone, the wheels were angled to all points of the compass, and I was already driving towards the wreckage anticipating a fatality when the driver’s door popped open and John jumped out, uninjured. It was proof again that somehow, these guys are able to survive accidents that would otherwise kill an innocent bystander.
John tried to make a run for it, looking back at me over his shoulder while brandishing a can of bear spray. Bad decision number four.
I yelled at him to stop or the police dog would be sent. John kept on running. Yup, you got it…that’s number five.
And so, John got a fast and hard lesson on the Law of Cause and Effect when he discovered the four paws of a police dog are much quicker than the two feet of a fleeing suspect.
