West Allegheny Featured Stories

   
 
 

For police K-9 officers affected by Rocco’s Law, dogs are a tool, an investment, and more

By Doug Hughey
 

Over the past eight years, Findlay Township K-9 Officer Neil Cridge and his police dog, Axel, have responded to hundreds of calls, both in Findlay and the surrounding townships.

   Some have involved tracking down missing persons, such as a child, or a dementia patient. For others, Axel has sniffed out stopped cars that police believed to be carrying drugs, but lacked a reasonable cause to search.

   A number of times, Cridge and Axel have taken to foot through wooded areas to track a fleeing suspect. One time, Axel sniffed out a suspect so well camouflaged in a pile of leaves that officers almost stepped on or walked right past him. Another time, they caught up with a suspect accused of attempted homicide who refused to surrender and confronted Cridge and another officer. After multiple warnings, Cridge informed the suspect he was about to release Axel. The suspect surrendered peacefully, saying he “wasn’t going to mess with the dog.”

   “Most times, the mere presence of the dog keeps officers from having to go hands-on with a subject,” says Cridge, “and results in a safer outcome for all.”

   Recently, Cridge and North Fayette’s K-9 officer, Cpl. Todd Heufelder, gave demonstrations with their police dogs at Janoski’s Farm City Days July 26. With Heufelder wearing a thick arm guard, Cridge sent Axel after Heufelder, but not before demonstrating the ability to also stop the dog dead in his tracks.

   “We have multiple tools available to us,” says Cridge, “but once we deploy another tool we can’t stop it. The dog we can.”

 

   Both Axel and Heufelder’s dog, Nevo, are capable of delivering a single bite that can easily snap an arm or wrist. Though it’s just one tool in the arsenal, it’s one that’s helped shaped attitudes about the dogs.  

   “There’s this idea out there that they’re just alligators on the end of a leash,” he says.

   Police canines, however, are also a deterrent that can bring a potentially dangerous situation to a close peacefully. They’re trackers that can follow a scent for miles and hear a heart beat from 25 feet away, or sniff out drugs or drug residue from a distance farther than any human or machine. They’ll

 
Findlay Township’s police dog, Axel, enjoys some attention from a crowd at Janoski’s Farm City Days prior to a demonstration. North Fayette Police Cpl. Todd Heufelder, state Sen. Matt Smith and Findlay Township K-9 Officer Neil Cridge pose for a photo with police dogs Nevo and Axel. lightbox text jqueryby VisualLightBox.com v5.9
 
 
  willingly rush in to search an area or building without fear or hesitation. They’re an $8,000 instrument that can buy an officer a life-saving three to five seconds, and for which more grants are continuously becoming available, and more police departments are utilizing.  
     
 

After years of relying on Cridge and Axel, North Fayette purchased their first dog using grant money earlier this year. Last year, Robinson Township also acquired a dog. Between the original purchase price of the dog, significant upfront training time, and additional costs to outfit a police vehicle, dogs can cost a department about $30,000. However, thanks to fundraisig efforts and grants like the Roethlisberger Foundation, which helped fund North Fayette’s K-9 unit, Heufelder says that their dog, Nevo, didn’t cost taxpayers a dime. The same goes for Robinson Township.

   Yet despite an uptick in the use of police dogs among departments, Pennsylvania’s laws protecting police animals have lagged behind those of other states, and even those protecting federal agencies. In the eyes of Pennsylvania law currently, taunting a police dog - such as by hammering on the window of a police car - is no different than killing one. Both are punishable by a third-degree felony.

   Following the stabbing death of a Pittsburgh Police canine named Rocco earlier this year, however, state Sen. Matt Smith and state Rep. John Maher both introduced pieces of legislation to stiffen penalties against anyone who injures or kills a police animal. The legislation, dubbed Rocco’s Law, passed through the Pennsylvania House and Senate in just a matter of five months, and the bill was signed into law by Gov. Tom Corbett in July.

   Once the new law takes effect in September, the penalty for killing a police animal will increase from a third-degree to a second-degree felony. It will also carry with it a penalty of 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.

   “This was really something that the whole community was a part of,” says Smith, “from the grieving to making sure that something like this doesn’t happen again.”

   Not only does the new law protect a financial investment, but also a time investment and personal bond between officers and the community. Just to train an officer to work with a dog requires almost two months of full time work. That’s on top of the 16 hours of required monthly training officers are required to perform in order to maintain their certification through the North American Work Dog Association. During that time, officers continue to test their animals as each learns the other’s ticks, queues and limitations. Heufelder and Cridge say both of their dogs also live with them, and when the dogs are ready to retire, they’ll buy them back from the department for $1.

   “We’re with them more than we are our families,” says Heufelder.

   The community, too, embraces the dogs. Axel is a regular visitor to schools, so much that, Cridge jokes, more people seem to know Axel’s name better than Cridge’s. Thanks to Eukanuba, all of Axel’s food is donated, and veterinarian Anne Bolind of Imperial Animal Hospital in Imperial donates her time and expertise, both to Findlay and North Fayette’s units. The 171st Air Refueling Wing has also opened their doors to training groups.  

   Recently, McKee Elementary students donated $1,400 to North Fayette’s K-9 fund, and got to meet Nevo for the first time.

   Cridge says that, at times, Axel has helped form a bridge between police and people in the community. 

   “Not everyone may like the police, but most people like dogs,” he says.

   Much of that has to do with their playful demeanor, which the officers demonstrated can be switched on or off like a light switch at Janoski’s Farm City Days. When not working, they’re loving animals that soak up attention with tail wagging satisfaction. Prior to latching onto Heufelder’s arm, Axel reveled in the attention from a crowd as children wearing face paint ran their fingers through his coat.

   During the demonstration, Heufelder and Cridge also had Nevo search a car for drugs. Upon finding the drugs, sealed in a plastic bag inside a metal container, Cridge tossed a piece of PVC pipe in front of the dog. That signaled work time was over, and led to a playful game of tug of war. Play, they explained, is the dog’s payday, and overriding motivation when working.

   “Even when they’re working, everything we do is still a game,” says Cridge. “Just like you or I want our pay day when we’re done working, they don’t give up until they get their pay day, and that’s to play.”

 
 
 

          Published by:

          Hughey Publications, LLC 
          A Community-Focused Public Relations and Publishing Company
          P.O. Box 165, Imperial, PA 15126    724.695.3968 (office)
          E-Mail: info@awmagazine.com
 

          SERVING: Clinton, Findlay, Imperial, North Fayette, Oakdale, Sturgeon, McDonald, Robinson, Kennedy, Thornburg, Pennsbury, Ingram, Moon and Crescent

 
          Copyright © Hughey Publications, LLC  1999 - 2014  All rights reserved.  Web site Design and Maintenance by DDS Web Design.