With pot now legal, Monroe cuts police dog from budget
MONROE — The police department has decided not to replace a retired police dog after the legalization of cannabis in Connecticut reduced its role in vehicle searches.
The department has operated two K-9 units for about a decade. But with the legalization of adult-use cannabis in Connecticut last year, police changed tactics and began using police dogs only in drug searches with a warrant, according to Police Chief Keith White.
White said the need for the second dog is “greatly reduced because our dog would hit on marijuana.”
Since police can’t “untrain” the dog that means the dog would now be alerting to a substance that is legal, he said.
“We obviously don’t want him to do (that),” White said.
Police will continue to request K-9 units from neighboring towns to assist them if their remaining Belgian malinois, named Riggs, is off-duty.
“There’s no sense continuing to spend money when we have other assets available to us in the area that could perform the same tasks,” White said.
Both Murphy, the German shepherd the department retired in September, and Riggs were trained to detect cannabis. Legalization reduced the cases in which the dogs could put the training to use, White said.
In 2022, Monroe police deployed Riggs 14 times, mostly in missing person cases, White said. Deployment stats for Murphy in 2022 were not immediately available.
While comparable numbers from previous years were also unavailable, White said before 2019, police dogs were typically deployed more than twice as often as this year.
Along with the reduced demand for police dogs, eliminating one of the K-9 units also reduces costs, White said. The budget for the remaining dog is about $2,500 for costs that include food, vet services and training equipment, he said.
Food costs alone have increased to about $70 a week, White said. Also, sometimes when a dog attends monthly training, White said, another officer has to fill in for the handler, causing police to have to pay overtime.
“We’re always looking at the costs and the benefits of whatever we’re involved in and we don’t want to have any unnecessary costs here in the department,” he said.
Monroe police are studying other breeds, such as bloodhounds and Labrador retrievers, as they consider whether to switch to one that is more specialized in tracking a missing person.