I’ll not be the one to tell you being a police officer is all roses, but the rewards far outweigh the difficulties.  There are long and odd hours, missed weekends and stress on the body.  The men and women who have chosen this ultimately rewarding law enforcement career know it comes with some amount of sacrifice and understand the merit of contributing to our society as a whole.

Officer’s families make similar sacrifices and it rests with the officer to ensure his or her family is acknowledged and thanked for their supporting role.  I, for one, could not do this job if it weren’t for the love and support of my husband, children, family (thanks mom and dad!) and friends, which is important, as they are the main reason behind my continued passion for and involvement in policing.  Even though I long-ago found my purpose in law enforcement, the ‘purpose’ itself is forever evolving and I am constantly evaluating what it actually is and what it means.

Everyone must find their own purpose – what is yours?

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The end of 2011 is fast approaching.  Wasn’t it just last month I started my dog-handling career?  Of course not – years have passed, and I can count my time remaining as a dog handler in the same fashion new mothers give the age of their babies – 24 months, 18 months, 12 months… This time frame is the only downside to having a dog as a partner, because their lives are so much shorter than ours.  Those who have dogs in their lives, regardless if the dog is a work partner, assistance dog, pet or companion, will know exactly what I’m talking about.

The end of 2011 also brings a close to a memorable year, during which the world’s cameras were zoomed in and focused on Vancouver on June 15, 2011.

All of us know the riot is a black mark against Vancouver – it will take a while for the mark to wear away and I’m okay with that.  It should take some time for the wound to heal, because if it heals too quickly we may forget how poorly our City was treated.

Perhaps that should be one of our purposes as Vancouverites – to remain passionate about our City and to always remember what happened while at the same time not allowing it to consume us in continued anger and/or fear.  There must be continued growth, at all levels of policing and citizenship, if we are to learn from the events and the aftermath of June 15th.

************

From a blogging perspective, it’s a been a steady if somewhat leaner year in regards to posts.  I’ve finally added Twitter to the blog as it’s much easier to blast out information in 140 characters than to sit at a computer and craft a post….somehow, though, Twitter’s ease feels like cheating on an exam…besides, if given the choice between quality and quantity, I always prefer the former, particularly for important stuff.

Give-aways always tally the most comments (who doesn’t like free stuff??) and I’ve a couple of give-aways lined up for the new year – one is a signed novel written by a fellow VPD officer…it’s a great read and I’ll share more about it in January.

Posts on what actually happens in police work garner more focused and sometimes critical attention.  The ‘In the Line of Duty‘ series resulted in many comments and emails on the topic of when a police officer is killed and what citizens and officers can do to prevent similar tragedies.

Sgt. Ryan Russell (Toronto Metropolitan Police Service, Ontario), Constable Garrett Styles (York Regional Police Service, Ontario) and Officer Vincent Roy (Police de Bromont, Quebec) all made the ultimate sacrifice in 2011.

They will never be forgotten.

************

Then there’s you, the reader.  You are a lively bunch with your comments!  Even so, email tends to be the way most of you communicate, especially if you come to the blog through my articles in The Vancouver Sun.  Dozens of you get in touch every month and I read every single email.  Thank you for your continued support of police officers everywhere.

Here’s a little bit about you, the reader:

• in order of the volume of readers, you are from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, South Africa, India, the Philippines and Spain
• 706 of you have clicked the “Who Are You?” poll on the right side bar – I won’t list the results here as you can simply look to your right and view the results
• you love to read and look at photos of police dogs, as every time there is a ‘give-away’, site visits skyrocket
• you obviously care about your law enforcement officers

Visits to the Vancouver Police Museum and the Vancouver Archives (my new favourite place), scouring boxes of old photos excavated during our department’s recent move to a new building, the salvage of wooden signs and an old window frame from the garage-turned-kennel that housed the dog squad for decades (see below for some more information about our old building) – all of this speaks of how our department used to be.

It’s fascinating.

Dog Squad 1960

Letters dated from the 1920′s outline the creation and implementation of the Women’s Bureau, and the hiring of women as police officers.  The style, sentence structure, grammar and word choice are of a time when horses and carts outnumbered motor vehicles, and of when women were not expected to do a “man’s” job.

There are photos, memos, newspaper clippings, letters and publications – all for the reading.

What I have noticed, though, is a huge gap in the history of the VPD and of our city.

No matter where I look, the years 1939 to 1950 are missing.

World War Two.

If you have any suggestions on where I should look, please leave a comment or send me an email to sandra@behindtheblueline.ca

************

Old Dog Squad Building, under Cambie St. Bridge

The building has since been razed and is now the south/east corner of the police parking lot.

It was the building I transferred to in 2005, when there was the immediate issue of where to put me.  There was no women’s locker room or bathroom, so the guys all chipped in and cleaned out the janitor’s closet and stuffed a skinny locker into the tiny space so I would have a private place to change.  It was so small that I could not bend over to tie up my boots without my head hitting one wall and my rear hitting the other, so it was not without a small amount of jubilation that I rejoiced when we finally moved to an updated facility.

That said, I still miss the repeated comments of, “Hey, you forgot to tie your boots,” when I stepped out with laces flapping.  As routine would have it, I always had to shuffle into the office to lace ‘em up.

It was a building steeped in tradition, memories and reputation, and I am honoured to have been able to call it home.

While the building had many positives in terms of tradition and memory, it had declined into very poor working and boarding conditions for the dogs assigned to the section.  Our new facility is fantastic for both dogs and handlers, and yes, I’m over-joyed to finally have my own locker room.

In fact, I think I have the nicest room in the whole building!  ;)

*

So to answer your questions, Hondo is doing very well.  Actually, that might be the understatement of 2010, as Hondo is better than he has ever been and I wonder if he hadn’t been ill for quite some time.  He is a different dog than he was before he was diagnosed with IMHA, and I really have to thank the VPD for believing Hondo could be healed and to CanWest Veterinary Specialists for looking after him and providing him with world class care.

To give you an idea as to what he is like now – Hondo is more intense, more aware, more focused.  He is extremely affectionate with my family and has stepped up his guard duty in our backyard to keep the neighbours two cats out of our garden.

While working, Hondo is more eager than I’ve ever seen.  This might be due to his maturity (he’s 6 1/2 years old) or it might be because he missed a few months due to illness and feels he has to catch up. Who knows, but as far as I’m concerned, who really cares!

Yes, he’s more of a handful but I love it.

Again, thank you for your support.  It means more than you know.

The funniest part of the day was watching as the new decoys were introduced to bite suits and made to run a short distance to warm themselves up.  If you have never worn a bite suit, it is comparable to wearing a mattress with cut outs for your arms and legs - very hot, quite restrictive and heavy.  You sweat, a lot:

The decoys were instructed on the different ways to work a dog and were shown the most effective ways to become an excellent quarry.  The group was top notch which bodes well for the training future of our police dogs, because really, we as dog teams are nothing without good quarries.  A good quarry = an excellent police dog = multiple arrests = bad guys going to jail = reduced crime = JOB WELL DONE. 

Update on Hondo – the vets at Canada West Veterinary Specialists & Critical Care Hospital cleared Hondo to return to work two weeks ago, but just because he has been cleared does not mean he’s ready to hit the streets.  The last couple of weeks have been spent on conditioning, training and recuperation.  The quarry class was Hondo’s first go at extended training and exertion since he has been ill and he did very well.  It’s clear he’s very eager to get back to work, as am I. 

That said, it was quite something watching all the dogs work during the orientation class and to see the quarries acquire new skills. Just watching the experts teach is a privilege, and I learn something every time.

Now, back to training with Hondo – we are on the count down for our return to full duty….

Have you ever seen so many Canadians shout out their pride?  I haven’t – it was great!  So here’s a little bit of good news to help us recover from the patriotic hangover – Hondo came home today.

After being hospitalized for more than a week, Hondo was given what the doctors are calling a ‘day pass’, and he came home this afternoon.  He still has to go back to the vet everyday for treatment but this is the small step forward we have been waiting for.  The doctors are optimistic about his recovery and his return to duty, and we are all hoping he continues to improve.

Hondo was diagnosed with Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia (IMHA) , a life-threatening disease where the immune system destroys the body’s own red blood cells.  This disease can be triggered by an underlying cause (cancer, lupus etc) or it can occur for no reason.  The barrage of tests Hondo was submitted to have shown there is no underlying cause in his case – thank goodness for small miracles.  That said, depending on the case mortality for this disease can run very high so we are not in the clear yet even though we are headed that way.

While he still has a long recovery before him, Hondo has been showing some of his old self – his ears perked up at the sound of a passing siren, he sat at the front door looking out through the sidelight as I got groceries out of the truck, and his tail went into helicopter spins when the kids came home from school. 

The excitement of coming home has tired him out and he’s now fast sleep, which is a good thing.  He’s going to need all the rest he can get.

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.

VPD Dog Squad

Our uniforms, with their subdued shoulder flashes, are always covered in dog hair.  If it’s been a busy shift, our pant legs are likely dotted with mud, and we’ll have baseball caps jammed on our heads to contain our hair (if we have any) and to keep the Vancouver rain out of our eyes.   A mud-splattered uniform means we’ve been working hard and enjoying every second of it.  As far as we’re concerned there is no better job within the Vancouver Police Department.

Such is the life of a police dog handler. 

Nose prints on the insides of the truck windows.  The plates of stolen cars written across the backs of our hands.  Three different police radios chattering at the same time.  An eye always to the road, watching for anything untoward.    All of these are a daily occurrence for those of us fortunate enough to work alongside four-legged partners.  The dogs, regardless if they are trained to look for people, property, drugs, bombs or firearms, are the reason for our job satisfaction.   

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – if you ask any handler who his or her best partner has been, you will get the same answer, “My dog.” 

Formed in 1959 with the addition of four dogs to the department, the Dog Squad now has an authorized strength of eighteen handler/dog teams.  At the moment, there are seventeen active working dogs:

Ace, Blade, Blix, Bosco, Des, Diesel, Gus, Hondo, Jag, Jet, Knight, Magnum, Nash, Shack, Storm, Teak and Turbo. 

The other two dogs who made a part of the team have very recently retired from duty – Bear and Raider.  All of these dogs have their own Collector Cards - if you see a dog handler out in the city, please feel free to ask them for a trading card.

For more information on the police dogs of the VPD, please visit the Dog Squad website.  For more stories from inside the Dog Squad and other sections of the VPD, stay tuned…

Until then,

Sandra

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.

Well, the bridge has been the biggest local news, and hot the heels of the bridge is Vancouver’s week in policing:

• Pattullo Bridge fire - one of the wooden trestles under the south section of one of the Lower Mainland’s busiest bridges caught fire early in the morning on Sunday, Jan.18th.  Police are still investigating the cause of the fire, and the bridge will remain closed until at least early February.  Oh dear.  That means 80,000+ commuters having to find an alternative route into work.
• HOMICIDE UPDATE- 30 year old AAron Juhani Yliruusi has been charged with 2nd degree murder in relation to a homicide that took place in Vancouver on January 11, 2009.  For details, check the Media Releases page under date 09.01.20
• It pains me to write this, but three police officers from different departments are now under investigation by the Vancouver Police after they were allegedly involved in an altercation early in the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 21/09.  Again, full details of the investigation to this point can be read on the Media Releases page of the VPD.

In policing news from around the Lower Mainland:

• Jamie Bacon, a man well known to police, was the target of an apparent gang-land style shooting on Wednesday.  He managed to escape serious injury, but the time and location of the shooting have raised concerns among the public and the police.  Bacon was shot at while sitting in his car at a busy Abbotsford intersection at 3:50 pm in the afternoon. An innocent bystanders car was struck by a stray bullet, and it’s a miracle no one else was injured,  For the full story, see the article written by Kim Bolan of The Vancouver Sun newspaper.
• the Robert Dziekanski inquiry is under way.  I’ll be paying attention to how this one plays out.

The Barack Obama inauguration – this one is just plain NEWS from south of the border.  Wow.  I just hope he can deliver what he’s promised.

On a lighter note, all of the members of the VPD’s Dog Squad gathered together on Monday in the park next to Science World for the annual team photo.  There was a lot of barking, but by the end of it, we were able to get all eighteen dogs together just in time for the fog to break, and our photographers were able to get some great shots.  I’ll try to post one here once we’ve decided on which photo to use.

That’s it for this week, everyone.  Have a good weekend, and stay safe.

Sandra

PSD Nitro, RIP  – we have not forgotten

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.