Victim Assistance Unit K9 finishes first year
When people think of police service dogs, the first thought is often of a German shepherd that can track, chase and take down a criminal.
While the Medicine Hat Police Service does employ three service dogs in its K9 Unit, it is also the workplace for one victim service dog.
Mulder, a three-year-old lab, has been working with the MHPS’s Victim Assistance Unit for a little over a year, and has helped assist with more than 45 cases so far.
“What Mulder has brought to the Medicine Hat Police Service is almost indescribable in just words,” said MHPS VAU program manager Bobbi Jo Walker. “When we first got Mulder we weren’t sure how he was going to work with everyone, or if he would be a bit of a distraction — I don’t think anyone imagined how much of a help Mulder would really be.”
Now a year into his job, Mulder works a standard 40hour work week alongside Walker. Some of Mulder’s biggest responsibilities are courtroom visits, where he sits in the witness box to comfort the speaker, or spending time with victim’s family members, interview sit-ins where he sits with people of all ages as they give statements, and taking tours of the police headquarters helping officers de-stress after a work day.
“It’s amazing how much Mulder can do for someone, by doing so little,” she said. “During victim interviews, people can be recreating an awful time in their life. With Mulder there, even just putting a bit of body weight on them, or having them pet him he can make the process a lot easier for the person.”
When Mulder is on shift, he wears a small jacket which helps remind him he is working and that he cannot chase anything, bark at anything and must do everything Walker says when she says it.
“Mulder has a pretty strict set of commands and he has to be recertified every year,” she said. “When I tell Mulder something he has to be able to do it every time. We cannot have him freeze in a situation.”
Because he works a standard work week, Walker says just like human beings, Mulder starts to get tired as the week goes on.
“What a lot of people don’t understand is that this is work for Mulder and he know it’s work,” she said. “Mulder acts the opposite way of most dogs. He is calm, doesn’t bark, doesn’t growl and doesn’t chase things or get distracted — it can be very hard for him. As the week goes on I start to notice myself needing to repeat a command or I notice his feet start to drag.”
Mulder is one of seven victim service dogs in the province, with each costing $40,000 for a group to purchase. Walker says the MHPS was able to get Mulder for $1 as a gift from the Edmontonbased organization Dogs With Wings. She says the people of Dogs With Wings believed in what the MHPS Victim Assistance Unit has been doing for the past 27-plus years.
For more information on the Mulder and the VAU go to, medicinehatpolice.com/posts/ post/66