|
|
Mumbai police lose their `Prince' who was king of detection
A Labrador Retriever, who served as a detection dog with the Mumbai police and had sniffed out four live bombs and 17
hand grenades during the 26/11 terror attacks, died on Friday after prolonged illness. Ten-year-old Prince, who served
the Mumbai police force for 10 long years in the bomb detection and disposal squad, died on Friday afternoon while
undergoing treatment at Sakarbai Hospital for Animals in central Mumbai's Parel area, police said. He was laid to rest
with full state honors at Parel. The black Labrador had been suffering from heart and kidney ailments since the past
few weeks, said deputy commissioner of police Dhananjay Kulkarni said.
"Prince had saved several lives by sniffing out four unexploded bombs and 17 hand grenades at iconic Taj Mahal hotel,
the Oberoi Hotel, Mumbai CST railway station and Chabad house, all targeted during the 2008 terror attacks," he said.
The explosives were later defused. Prince was one of the four sniffer dogs that were put into service during the
November 26, 2008 terror strikes, said Kishore Navar, a BDDS Constable who handled the explosive detection four-leg animal.
The dog had also helped in gathering clinching evidence from the sites of the July 2006 Mumbai train bombings, police said.
submitted by: Jim Cortina, Dir. CPWDA
In Loving Memory of
K9 PHELPS
September 27, 2014
 
Handler: John Greene
Montgomery County Police Department
100 Edison Park Drive, 3rd floor
Gaithersburg, MD 20878
In
Loving
Memory
of
K9
PETRA
September
8,
2014
Handler:
?
Colorado
Springs
Police
Department
705
S
Nevada
Avenue
Colorado
Springs,
CO
80903
Police
K9 dies
in
parking
garage
fall
The
Colorado
Springs
Police
Department
says one
of its
K9s died
following
an
accident
during a
training
exercise
Monday.
Petra was participating in a scent detection training exercise with the
Regional
Explosives
Unit
when the
accident
happened.
She fell from a parking garage in the 700 block of S. Nevada Ave. Petra
suffered
a
catastrophic
back
injury
and had
to be
euthanized.
She had
been
with the
Colorado
Springs
Police
Department
for 15
months.
submitted
by Jim
Cortina,
Dir.
CPWDA
In
Loving Memory of
K9 PYRO
week of August
17, 2014
Handler:
Officer Mark
Hamm
Cleveland County
Sheriff's Office
128
South Peters
Norman, OK 73069
website -
http://ccso-ok.us/
Retired K-9
officer is laid
to rest
During his
service as a
deputy with the
Cleveland County
Sheriff's
office,
Mark Hamm was a
deputy partnered
with the K-9
deputy, Pyro.
A former Cleveland
County Sheriff’s
deputy passed away
quietly last week
with his loved one
by his side. Pyro
was a K-9 deputy
trained to sniff out drugs, a Belgian Malinois known for his loyalty and
eagerness to work.
During his recent
years of retirement,
Pyro lived with former sheriff’s deputy and one-time handler, Mark Hamm.
“He was imported
from France,” Hamm
said.
“They were used a little back in the ‘30s by the military and then faded
out and came back
into use in the
‘90s.”
Hamm said
that Pyro is fairly
typical of the
social, hard-working
breed.
“They’re very eager
to please so they
work all the time,”
Hamm said. “German
Shepherds can be a
little moody if they
get tired.”
Unlike some breeds
used in law
enforcement, Pyro
was friendly and
gentle enough to
work around
children. “We loved
to
go to the schools and do demonstrations with the kids for the Dare
program,” Hamm said.
“We would hide
something,
and he would find it.” The kids loved to pet him and their affection was
returned, he said.
Pyro was born in
1999.
The Cleveland County Sheriff’s Department purchased him for $7,200 in
2001, and Hamm
became his handler.
“He’s a dual purpose dog, he was trained for drug protection as well as
patrol work,” Hamm
said. Pyro could
follow
the scent of a missing person or someone trying to elude law enforcement
or he could look for
evidence.
Working with a K-9
is a special
assignment. The dog
is actually the
deputy partner with
the human officer.
“When I was
in high school, I
was a part of the
Moore Police
Department Explorer
post which is a
branch of the Boy
Scouts,” Hamm said.
“The officer who led the branch in Moore was a K9 officer, his name is
John Smith. His
dog’s name was Omar,
and so
I was exposed to law enforcement and law enforcement with a K9.”
Hamm liked the idea
of working with a
dog
and was happy for
the opportunity
under Sheriff F.
DeWayne Beggs.
A K9 lives with his
handler.
“I took care of him,
so when we were not
on duty he was at
home or in the
backyard,” Hamm
said.
Pyro loved to work.
“He just loved to be
with you. His work
was play — it was
like playing fetch,”
Hamm said. “They’re
all ready to go to work, ready to go play and have fun.”
Hamm and Pyro didn’t
find any really big
drug busts,
but Pyro served the
department well.
We were very steady
and reliable,” Hamm
said. “We didn’t do
a lot of drug
interdiction, so we
weren’t out on the
interstates. We were
out in the
unincorporated parts
of the county doing
patrol.”
Often Pyro would be
called upon to check
out a car that
officers suspected
had drugs. “We
helped Noble and
Lexington
and the state
parks,” Hamm said.
The team also helped
Norman sometimes. At
that time the city
only had one K-9
unit. Because Hamm
and Pyro worked
the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift, Norman would call them if they needed a dog’s
sniffer in the
middle of the night.
Hamm
said there were no
dramatic rescues,
though once, the
partners helped in
one.
“There was an
instance where,
in a combined effort... (we found) a kid at 108th and Highway
9,” Hamm said. In
this case, a boy had
gotten lost and
the parents pointed the way they thought he had gone.
“We were running a
track, and we were
on it,
and the kid had been gone 33 hours,” Hamm said.
“We were headed in
the right direction,
and the helicopter
found them with
infrared.”
Hamm was Pyro’s
handler for
four and a half years, then had to relinquish him when he left the
sheriff’s office. He
asked if he could
buy Pyro,
but Sheriff Beggs explained the department couldn’t sell the highly
trained animal.
Another handler
partnered
with Pyro. Ironically, considering his name, Pyro was locked in a kennel
when the handler's
house caught on fire
and burned.
Fortunately, the dog
was able to escape,
but his nose was
ruined for scent
after that. This all
happened
around the time Sheriff Joe Lester took office. Meanwhile, Hamm had just
returned to the
department.
Lester retired Pyro
and Hamm was asked
if he wanted the
dog. He did. The old
partners had another
several years
left together. “He liked other people and other dogs,” Hamm said. “He
lived a good life.
He was taken good
care of.”
That care was
well-deserved, Hamm
said. “He was a very
loyal dog. Every
night he would sleep
in my room on the
floor at the foot of
my bed,” he said.
Hamm said Pyro had
unique personality
and responded to
human emotions.
“There’s something
different in an
animal that can love
you back,” he said.
“A dog… they love
you and are excited
to
see you whether it’s been a day or just five minutes, you get the same
reception.”
Hamm said Pyro was a
commissioned
deputy and served the county well.
“They don’t want
paid vacation, they
don’t want sick
leave, they just
want you
to love them,” Hamm said.
(submitted
by Jim Cortina, Dir.
CPWDA)
In Loving Memory of
K9 PYRO
March 2004 - 2014
Handler: Sgt. Kody Nesbitt
Lubbock Police
Department
916 Texas Ave.
Lubbock, TX 79401
Goodbye To Admired
K9 Officer
His
handler, officer Kody
Nesbitt, described him as a
great blend of protection
and friendliness. Pyro
worked hard
apprehending
criminals and searching
Texas Tech football games
for explosives. What he
truly loved was wowing
crowds
with his "police dog"
demonstrations. He was so
skilled, he followed hand
signals instead of verbal
commands.
Officer Nesbitt's
late father was also an LPD
K9 handler and now gets to
work with Pyro.
Pyro was a
Belgian Malinois
(pronounced like Illinois)
and was born in March of
2004. Pyro was selected by
the
Lubbock Police
Department around 2006 from
Hill Country Dog Center near
San Antonio and was
initially
handled by
Sergeant Dennis Kelley.
Sgt. Kelley retired in 2007
and I was selected to join
the K9 unit at that time and
was informed I would be
going to
handler school with
Pyro. Pyro was selected as a
dual purpose patrol dog and
explosives detection dog.
During my
training we
learned how to search for
explosives on vehicles, in
building, open areas and
even clearing roadways
looking for explosives. Pyro
and I also learned how to
use his superior nose and
skills to clear a building
looking
for hidden suspects,
systematically search an
area for criminals hiding
from officers, how to send
him into vehicles
for
dangerous and uncooperative
suspects, criminal
apprehension and handler
protection among other
disciplines.
One thing that Pyro and I both
loved to do was obedience. We
worked on it every day that we
were on patrol. It is
something
that Pyro had a lot of previous
training in and I enjoyed so
much that I took that and kept
up what
he had and expanded his
skills. I taught Pyro tactical
obedience and even how to watch
for hand signals for him
to sit,
down, come back to me and bark
all without any verbal commands. Pyro was a very slender, agile,
athletic
and FAST dog. Pyro did
not bite overly hard (I know
because before I was his handler
I decoyed for him plenty and
even though it was tolerable in
the bite suit, anyone that he
apprehended without it certainly
complied),
but whenever he had
the decoy in his sights, he was
on them in an instant!
During Pyro’s time here at he
Lubbock Police department we
competed in several police games
and other police K9
competitions. Pyro almost always
won a medal in whatever
competition we competed in,
whether it was obedience,
detection or patrol. As much as
I would love to say it was all
the handler, I know better. Most
of the time it was
me trying to
get out of the way and to make
sure that I did not do something
to interrupt him during whatever
task
we were performing. One
thing that can be said for
police K9’s, and Pyro is
certainly no different, is that
everyday,
they are truly excited
to go to work.
I never walked out in uniform to
go to work that Pyro did not
start jumping around, panting
and pacing, ready to go
get in
the vehicle. In fact, when I
started working off duty jobs as
my career progressed, Pyro would
see me in
uniform from his
kennel and he would begin
panting and pacing ready to go
and when I would not get him he
would
bark as if to say “Hey,
you are forgetting me!” Like all
police officers, each police K9
has their own personality and
Pyro was certainly no different.
He had a great blend of
protection and friendliness.
During Pyro’s career from 2006
until 2012, Pyro performed
numerous tasks to help keep
Lubbock, it’s citizens and it’s
officers, safe. Pyro searched
nearly every home Texas Tech
Football game for explosives to
ensure it was safe for
the
thousands and thousands of fans
that would flock to Jones
Stadium to root for the home
town Red Raiders.
As a former
student myself, it was great to
learn just how much goes into
making our venues safe for the
fans of
Texas Tech. Pyro also
searched the United Spirit arena
numerous times for concerts and
large events.
Pyro was always on call when it
came to explosives detection and
he was always eager and up to
the task. On a typical
patrol
shift Pyro did not get many
explosives calls, but he
routinely answered the call for
burglaries in progress,
robberies, officers in pursuit
or any other type of high
priority call that needed his
assistance. Pyro apprehended
numerous criminals during his
time at the Lubbock Police
Department and always gave 100%
each time he exited the
vehicle.
However, as much as Pyro loved
working the streets, I believe
he loved performing at
demonstrations almost as much.
During Pyro’s time we performed
a myriad of demonstrations for
the public that we both enjoyed
to the utmost.
As much fun as it
is to perform for adults, there
is nothing as great and
rewarding as performing for a
group of
children, and Pyro was
ALWAYS up to the task. Needless
to say, whenever you are a
handler performing a demo,
you
are only a secondary thought,
everyone wants to see “the
police dog!” No matter whether Pyro was performing
patrol work
and biting the decoy in the big
bite suit, locating explosives
or even just doing some basic
obedience,
the kids were always
thrilled to see him and I truly
believe he enjoyed being there
to entertain them.
I know Pyro has impacted
countless lives both young and
old in his time at the Lubbock
Police Department, but he
had no
bigger impact than he did on me.
I was a new handler when Pyro
and I were teamed up and as most
of us
are whenever we perform a
new job or task, we tend to make
a lot of mistakes. But with Pyro,
a seasoned pro by
the time I
took over working with him, he
made those mistakes a little
less obvious and seemed to cover
for me
whenever I might think I
knew better than he did. Pyro
was many things to many people.
To the city he was a tool that
was used to fight crime, to
other officers he was a fellow
officer they knew they
could
count on whenever he was needed,
to my wife he was my protector
and she relied on him to make
sure that we
both made it home
at the end of each shift. But to
me, he was my partner, my buddy,
my best friend. There were
too
many times that I joked with my
wife that I spent more time with Pyro than I did with her (oddly
she did not
seem to think this
was as funny as I did). I have
unfortunately lost several pets
during my life, but losing Pyro
has
been harder than any of the
previous combined.
I guess because he was so much
more than that. Pyro was not a
dog I saw in the backyard (or in
the house during
his much
deserved retirement) or spent a
few hours a day or week with, he
was my entire focus while I was
at work.
Pyro would have given
his life for me and any other
officer or citizen. The city of
Lubbock, The Lubbock Police
Department and my family have
lost a great officer and
companion. The world is a little
darker and a little less
safe
without him in it. Enjoy your
official 10-42 (end of shift) my
friend, you earned it and now
you can work
with Pat Nesbitt
(my father and former Lubbock
Police K9 handler) who will
certainly give you all the
praise and
attention you could
want. It was truly an honor to
call you my partner.
Pyro’s Handler (2007 - 2012) and
Friend (2007 – 2014)
Kody Nesbitt
In Loving Memory of
K9 PASA
June 9, 2014
Handler: Officer Pete Osowiecki
Suffield Police Department
911 Mountain Rd.
Suffield, CT 06078
"It is with sadness that I must
announce the passing of Retired
K9 Pasa.
After a long battle with two
types of degenerative
conditions. A difficult decision
was forced upon
Sgt. Fern and his family, PASA reached the point where he was unable to
function without guidance or
assistance
and had to be euthanized today .PASA served the Community for three years
and was very successful
in Tracking and Numerous Narcotic seizures, PASA was fortunate to
live Five additional years as
Sgt. Fern’s
family companion before his
passing. PASA was given the
honor and dignity he deserved
for the time he
protected the Residents of
Norwalk by getting picked up in
the K9 cruiser for his last ride
where he put
his face in the wind and enjoyed
protecting the City of Norwalk
one last time.
They were members of the CPWDA
from 5/12/06 until 12/31/09.
submitted by
James Cortina,
Dir. CPWDA
|
In Loving Memory of
K9 PHIL
June 29, 2001-June 9, 2014
Handler: Officer Pete Osowiecki
Suffield Police Department
911 Mountain Rd.
Suffield, CT 06078
K9 Phil began her career at Fidelco in
Bloomfield, CT., however she was too
energetic to fulfill her original purpose.
She was donated to the Suffield Police
Department and began her new career as a
police dog, following a 40
year hiatus of a K9 program in the Town of Suffield. Through her career K9
Phil tracked down numerous suspects,
located drugs and served her community well. K9 Phil career was shortened
by a cruiser fire when she was inside.
The community rallied around the K9 unit and a replacement used cruiser
was purchased. K9 Phil was injured
in this fire, however through the efforts of the Suffield Veterinary
Hospital and physical therapist Erica
McElwey
from Change Your Range Phil was able
to work for a few more years. Following
Phil’s replacement K9 “Z”,
Phil took on another important role
retirement. K9 Phil was able to live out her
final years at my house watching
over my family. On her final days, Phil suffered a stroke and had to be
put down. Our house is empty without Phil
however our hearts are filled with joy that
she gave. Phil is in a better place watching
over us and keeping us safe.
Phil and my family would like to thank the residence of Suffield, the
entire staff at Suffield Veterinary Hospital
and Erica McElwey for their efforts during
K9 Phil career and retirement. God bless
Phil for all she has done.
submitted by Jim Cortina, Dir. CPWDA
In Loving Memory of
K9 PHOENIX
April 2014
Handler: Officer Donald Golding
Port Authority Police Department
New York City, NY
Port
Authority PD explosives detection dog, Phoenix, dies
after long illness
Port Authority Police Department K-9
Phoenix, who dedicated over seven years to
protecting the city’s traveling public,
recently lost his battle to cancer.
A
valued and trusted member of the Port Authority Police
Department, Phoenix the explosives detection dog,
has died after a long bout with cancer. Phoenix, who was
assigned to the Explosives Detection team of the
PAPD K-9 Unit in 2007, worked with his partner, Officer
Donald Golding, to search thousands of
unattended bags, packages and parcels to help safeguard
the area’s airports, seaports, terminals and
PATH system for the traveling public. He was also
involved in the Port Authority’s community outreach,
through which children got to meet and play with him.
“Phoenix never wavered in his dedication to duty,”
the authority’s Joseph Pentangelo said.
“He was a
goodwill ambassador and a crime fighter and he will be
missed.” One of the largest specialized
teams of its kind in the county, the PAPD K-9 Unit is celebrating its 30th
anniversary this year. It
consists of dozens of police officers and three police sergeant handler
teams divided into two areas: explosives
and drug detection. The Port Authority Police K-9 Unit was created in 1984
as a patrol dog program.
The original unit consisted of nine teams assigned
primarily to the Port Authority Bus Terminal and
PATH facilities. The Explosive Detection Team was added
in 1996, along with the first Narcotics
Detection Team, in response to the crash of TWA Flight
800 in Long Island. Each unit is assigned to
the Police Department’s Special Operation Division. Besides safeguarding
facilities, the team has also
trained more than 40 outside agencies.
submitted by Jim
Cortina, Dir. CPWDA
In Loving
Memory of
K9 PORTOS
March 25, 2014
Handler: Officer Bill Conner
Cass County Sheriff’s Office
303 Minnesota Avenue W
Walker, MN 56484
Retired K-9 dog in
Cass County dies
The Cass County
Sheriff’s Office’s retired K-9 Portos dog died Tuesday.
Portos selflessly served the sheriff’s office
under the guidance of K-9 Officer Bill Conner for
seven years before retiring in December of 2012, law
enforcement
officials said. While serving the county, Portos was responsible for the
detection of more than 20 pounds of
narcotics and involved in the apprehension of numerous suspects. Deputy
Conner and Portos received special
recognition from the US Police K-9 Association on two separate occasions;
one of which was for recovering
15 pounds of marijuana in a traffic stop. Portos held
multiple regional and national certifications through
the US Police K-9 Association. “We are thankful for the service of K9
Portos and K9 Handler Conner,”
reported the sheriff’s office.
submitted by Jim Cortina, Dir.
CPWDA
|
|
|
|
Memorials
to Fallen K-9s