Allentown Introduces Police & Fire K9s
Last updated: 06/27/2011 09:00
The newest editions to the City of Allentown Police and Fire Departments are hoping to put a bite into illegal activity in the city. Mayor Ed Pawlowski, Police Chief Roger MacLean, Fire Chief Bob Scheirer, Assistant Fire Chief Lee Laubach Jr. and APD Officer Charles Roca introduced Police K-9 Canto and Fire K-9 Judge during a news conference and demonstration today at the Mack South Fire Station.
K-9 Judge, a Labrador Retriever, is a donation to the city from the State Farm Arson Dog Scholarship program. K-9 Canto is a donation to the city from Knopf Automotive. State Farm Field Executive for the Lehigh Valley Richard Sundstrom attended the news conference along with David and Lisa Helmer of Knopf Automotive.
“We are very grateful to State Farm and Knopf Automotive for their generous donations,” said Pawlowski. “I never hesitate to tell municipal leaders across the state that Allentown has great community partners. State Farm and Knopf Automotive are two more of the reasons why.”
K-9 Judge is the first State Farm Arson Dog in city history and is the first in either Pennsylvania or New Jersey in several years. K-9 Canto becomes the fourth member of the APD’s K-9 unit. K-9 Canto replaces K-9 Falko who passed away from cancer last December.
Both dogs demonstrated their abilities. K-9 Judge found an accelerant that had been added to a piece of burned material. K-9 Canto found drugs that had been hidden on the property.
State Farm began its arson dog scholarship program in 1993. More than 250 teams have been placed in 43 states, the District of Columbia and Canada. They are trained and certified through the Maine State Criminal Justice Academy. The K-9s and handlers are required to complete a five-week training course. Through State Farms Arson Dog Program, law enforcement officials and fire investigators have a valuable resource that can have an immense impact on deterring arson related crimes as well as providing educational opportunities to their communities.
“K-9 Judge is trained to detect accelerants or flammable liquids such as gasoline and kerosene that arsonists use to start fires,” said Scheirer. “By pinpointing where a fire might have started, K-9 Judge can save the department a lot of man-hours.”
“I can’t say enough about the five-week training academy and the abilities of K-9 Judge,” said Laubach, who is K-9 Judge’s handler. “K-9 Judge is very smart and is a valuable addition to the department.”
Laubach is a 17 year veteran of the department. He was promoted to Fire Specialist in August of 2002, later promoted to Lieutenant in April 2006, promoted to Fire Marshal in June of 2008. Laubach was promoted to Captain of Public Affairs in October 2009 and was promoted to Assistant Chief of Fire Prevention in September 2010. He was honored as the 2010 Firefighter of the Year.
K-9 Canto is a German Shepherd. He and Officer Roca completed their certification last week and immediately went on active duty. K-9 Canto will assist with patrol duties and narcotics investigations.
“Our police K-9 unit has distinguished itself a number of times over the years,” said the mayor. “The position of a dog handler puts the officer in areas of high risk. I have great respect for Officer Roca and his unit partners who have voluntarily selected this line of work.”
“Over the years we have worked hard to develop cohesiveness within the department so our K-9 units are used to their greatest capacity,” said MacLean. “We achieve optimum results when all the units are able to work together.”
Officer Roca joined the department in 2002. He is a member of the Hostage Negotiation Team and has been awarded three commendations for merit.
Officer Roca and Canto join Officer Jonathan Smith and K-9 Django, Officer Michael Mancini with K-9 Sem and Officer Matthew Geake with K-9 Beny in the specialty unit.
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