Handler – Sgt. Jeff Dionne<\/p>\n
Grand Rapids police say goodbye to K-9 Atos<\/p>\n
Grand Rapids police laid one of their own to rest Tuesday. K-9 Atos joined the Grand Rapids Police Department in 2015 as a nationally certified patrol K-9 with a scent specialty in explosives detection, according to the department. Throughout his nearly decade-spanning career, K-9 Atos and his handler, Sgt. Jeff Dionne, performed close to 200 sweeps of Van Andel Arena ahead of concerts and other larger events, officers said.The pair were also very busy during election campaign seasons, performing sweeps ahead of visits by multiple presidential candidates, according to police. \u201cAtos was an incredible K9 partner that loved his job and his family equally,\u201d Dionne said. \u201cI\u2019ve had dogs for most of my life and I\u2019ve cared a great deal for each of them, but the bond I had with Atos was on another level. He will be deeply missed.\u201d Atos retired from police work in May 2022, and spent the rest of his time with Dionne and family, officers said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Handler – Sgt. Jeff Dionne Grand Rapids police say goodbye to K-9 Atos Grand Rapids police laid one of their own to rest Tuesday. K-9 Atos joined the Grand Rapids Police Department in 2015 as a nationally certified patrol K-9 with a scent specialty in explosives detection, according to the department. Throughout his nearly decade-spanning …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13992,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-13990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-k9memorial","tag-mi"],"yoast_head":"\n