The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Training to save lives
Police canine unit receives $10,300 donation from gala proceeds
MIDDLETOWN — Ongoing training of police dogs can often make the difference between life or death in emergency situations.
For instance, in the Westlake area of the city recently, city Police Officer William Maio, along with his dog, Judge, tracked an elderly man with dementia by using the scent on the man’s baseball cap.
“He had wandered off into another building and was sitting on the steps. If we never showed up, he wouldn’t know how to find his way back home,” he said.
The police canine unit was the benefactor Wednesday afternoon of more than $10,000 in donated proceeds from a September benefit gala to supplement its training and equipment budget.
German shepherd Koda joined his handler, Officer Matthew Bloom, and fellow law enforcement officers Capt. Gary Wallace, Sgt. Doug Clark, who heads the K-9 unit, and Maio in Mayor Dan Drew’s office to accept a $10,300 donation from Mira’s Jewelry Designs owner Mira Alicki.
The funds were part of the proceeds from Alicki’s Forever In My Heart charity gala Sept. 24 at the Wadsworth Mansion.
“I wanted to raise as much money as possible and we raised $28,000, so I think with the short time we had to organize it, I am satisfied,” said Alicki. She plans another benefit next year.
“It’s the power of partnership with everybody coming together to do really good things,” said Cynthia Clegg, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Middlesex County, which helped take in donations from the event.
“I wanted at least part of the proceeds to stay in Middletown,” said Alicki, who also gave $12,700 to the Animal Hope and Wellness Foundation of Sherman Oaks, Calif.
This past weekend, Bloom and Koda responded to the report of a teen dressed in black sitting in a chair with a rifle at the Wadsworth Mansion, Clark said.
The boy ran out into the woods after he was spotted with what turned out to be a black BB gun. The incident canceled a soccer game at nearby Snow School as a precaution, he said.
For these types of calls, Maio said, it’s key to train often with the dogs, which live withthe officersat their homes.
“A lot of people don’t realize when the canine retires and the handler takes possession of the dog, he or she gets saddled with all the dog’s medical expenses,” said Clark. He would like for part the gift to go into a fund for health care insurance policies for the department’s canine officers when they finish their service.
Niko, Clark’s former canine of seven years, died in March at age 13.
The money will also go toward additional training for the dogs, as well as the purchase of items such as bite suits “to try to mimic real-word scenarios that we’re required to respond to in the training atmosphere,” said Maio, whose dog is Judge, also a shepherd.
Handlers carry out numerous tasks with their dogs, including tracking and aggressive work, Maio said.
“Our instructors use the analogy: We smell spaghetti sauce but the dogs are able to smell every single ingredient that goes into the sauce. Their sense of smell is incredible compared to ours,” Clark said.
“Dogs don’t remember us by face, they remember us by smell,” he said.
Koda received a bulletand stab-proof protective vest in August from Vested Interest in K9s of East Taunton, Mass. It was sponsored by Andrew M. Schiff of Cos Cob. The cost for one protective vest for a law enforcement canine is $1,050, according to the department.
A lot has changed over the years for these officers, Clark said.
“When I first started, the dogs rode on wooden platforms in the back of the car. There was no barrier between the front seat and back seat. Now these dogs have inserts which contain them because it’s a safety issue. If you ever did crash, the dog could go right through the windshield,” Clark said.
So Jeffrey Daniels, the city’s senior public safety mechanic, created a solution: a wooden platform overlaid with two layers of rubber mats, Clark said.
There were other issues because the dogs didn’t have their own compartments in the cruiser, he said. “When the dog got wet or muddy, you would get wet or muddy because the dog would be right on your seat. It was terrible,” Clark said.
Once they retire, every Middletown police canine handler keeps their dog as a pet, Clark said.
“For article, or evidence, recovery in noncontaminated areas, we put out a used cell phone or something a person would lose like car keys, so Koda can find it,” Maio said. “They’re trained to detect humans odors. Judge hit on money when a home invasion suspect ran off into woods. He came across the money when I didn’t see it.”
The dogs will “nose at” the item, Maio said, then sit to indicate they found something recently touched by a person.
There are three canine teams in the department. Bloom and Koda graduated from the Connecticut State Police K-9 training in December. Hunter, a 10-year veteran of the force who worked with Officer Mike D’Aresta, died in early September from liver cancer. Officer Aura Smith will be the department’s next canine officer.
For information, visit the Middletown CT Police K-9 Unit on Facebook.