Saturday’s ‘K-9 Fair at the Park’ to be a community celebration
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula City Council
Published: February 24, 2010
The City Council received an invitation to enjoy Saturday’s “K-9 Fair at the Park” community celebration that will also mark the retirement of two dedicated Santa Paula police officers. SPPD Sergeant Ryan Smith told the council at the February 16 meeting that K-9s Rex and Jack are retiring at the end of the month, “which creates two vacancies” in the three-canine unit.
“Our history is we receive funding through asset forfeiture and private donations” for the K-9 program, but although “lucky” to have such support, now new fundraising has been launched. Smith said the February 27 event will be held at the Limoneira Soccer Fields located on East Telegraph Road just east of Hallock Drive from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Aside from SPPD K-9s, Special Response Team and other department personnel and displays, the CHP helicopter, K-9 teams from other agencies, Jolly Jump for the kids and Cumulus Broadcasting are among the other attractions for the family day of fun.
The event, Smith told the council, “will be a good, positive interaction for the community to come out and for us to open our doors and let the public meet the dogs if they haven’t already. It’s going to be a community open house, a fun time” that at the same time will raise awareness of the SPPD K-9 program and the value of the dog officers to the department. There is, Smith noted, ample parking at the site for those planning on attending.
Mayor Jim Tovias asked what the future holds for Smith’s K-9 partner Rex. “He will live at my house,” said Smith, as retiring K-9 Jack will remain with his partner Officer John Coffelt.
“I just want people to know,” said Tovias, “that you have that connection with your dog.” Smith said he is grateful he had the opportunity to serve as a K-9 officer, an experience he is able to pass on to other officers.
Councilman Bob Gonzales asked Smith to explain more of the K-9 process. Such SPPD dogs are imported from Germany because “frankly, we can’t get it right over here,” Smith noted. The health of the dog is “paramount,” and the animals have “wonderful pedigrees and personality traits” that make them perfect for K-9 duty.
Although “an important factor” in the use of K-9s is to help ensure officer safety in the pursuit and capture of suspects, Smith said the dogs also provide a “huge” boost to the community overall, but especially children. “I know when I was a little kid” already interested in becoming a police officer the K-9s were an exciting component.
Now, the SPPD K-9s “are able to get to the parks” and other locations where children are encouraged to interact with the canines and their human partners. “When kids play with them,” said Smith, “it breaks down barriers” and allows the children to get a more intimate and friendlier view of officers, “see us as more human.”
He noted costs of the K-9 program are “going up dramatically,” with the dog purchase now about $10,000. The five-week officer/K-9 training course costs $5,000, and additional training - such as drug detection - can “range from hundreds to thousands” of additional dollars.
Patrol training, which includes obedience, protection and apprehension, is “general training for them, and when they come out of school a bonding process” with their human officer partner takes about six months. Of mutual trust between the officer and the K-9, Smith said it is essential “they form that bond.”
And drug training does not teach the K-9 to sniff out drugs, but rather the canine is trained “to indicate” the presence of narcotics. “We can train a dog to smell out anything... they use them for airport customs for fruit coming in from other countries, but what we use them for out here is important to us, to get drugs off the street.”
Smith said K-9s can also smell explosives including firearms, where the explosive element of ammunition is scent detectable. K-9s, noted Smith, “can find guns that are, if not as much, just as big a threat” to the community as drugs.
Saturday’s free community event will also feature live entertainment, food vendors and other activities. Sponsored by the SPPD, Smith said the celebration will also feature “meet and greets with the K-9s for the children and adults throughout the day.”
Smith hopes the K-9s in the Park is the inaugural of what will become an annual celebration to raise awareness of and funds for the program. Sponsors are being sought for the SPPD K-9 program, as well as Saturday’s celebration: for more information contact Smith at 525-4474, ext. 180.
