Town police are looking to add an officer that drools and walks on all fours.
Since early 2007, town police have dedicated a Special Investigative Unit to combating the area’s rising drug sales. But even though the investigations led to 21 raids and 22 arrests last year, the lack of a drug dog has hampered the effort, said Lt. Nick Bado.
“Without the dog they’ve been very successful, but it’s getting blatant,” Bado said of the town’s drug activity. “It’s everywhere you look. We want to make them uncomfortable, go somewhere else or ideally take away their means to operate.”
But having their own dog to go on raids won’t be cheap. Buying and training the dog, training one dedicated officer to work with the animal, purchasing equipment for the dog and retrofitting a police vehicle to handle the dog will cost approximately $12,000. The officer who decides to become the dog’s caretaker will also make plenty of sacrifices, said Lt. Detective Joseph Carosi.
“The costs and commitment that a canine officer would devote to the department would be huge,” Carosi said. “He or she will be the full time caretaker of the dog, and their house would be retrofitted with a kennel.”
Local businesses have stepped up to help. Donations from contributors like Amigone Funeral Home, Casullo’s Automotive, Dunlop/Goodyear, Starker Manufacturing, John W. Danforth Company and General Motors have already raised 40 percent of the cost, Carosi said.
Despite the cost, Carosi said he’s convinced having the dog will be well worth it, especially after considering the multiple uses such an animal would provide the department. The officer dedicated to handling the dog will be a regular patrol officer, so at traffic stops where another officer is suspicious of drug activity, the dog could be used to create probable cause for a search, Bado said.
Locker searches at schools have also been a problem in the past, since the efforts would have to be coordinated with an outside police department in advance to ensure a dog would be present.
“Up until now we’ve had to borrow dogs. Every time we want to do locker searches, we have to go to another department,” Bado said. “They’ve been very accommodating, but this will eliminate that need.”
To find out more or donate to the project, call Carosi at 879-6632.
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