Area’s two newest officers made possible by community’s generosity

Thanks to many donations from the community in addition to a single large donation, the Dubois County Sheriff’s Department purchased the newest member to the department last week. Judge is a 12-month-old black Labrador that will join the department after completing his training in May.

The Jasper Department has also enjoyed the same generosity in their pursuit to replace their retired dog. “We won’t pay anything from the department’s budget for the new dog,” Chief Michael Bennett stated today, “and the dog’s vet, grooming and food is paid for as well.”

Jasper police officer Adam Bower was given permission to begin soliciting donations for the new dog in December of 2012. Max, the department’s nine-year-old Labrador-Shepherd mix, was due to retire that month.

Bower will be taking on the responsibilities as the Jasper Police Department’s new K-9 officer

Sheriff Donnie Lampert asked the County Commissioners for permission to do the same in a meeting earlier this month.

Both departments have enjoyed the generosity of residents and businesses in the community, so much so that the dogs’ veterinary, food and grooming costs have been covered by the donations.

According to Sheriff Donnie Lampert, a few days after he received permission to seek public contributions for the purchase of a new police dog from the County Commissioners (story here), a single check for $12,000, the estimated cost of a new working dog, was given to the department.

“We were asked not to disclose the donors but they are interested in making Dubois County a better county,” Lampert explained. “It’s incredible  It really touched our hearts at the department.”

Both departments are purchasing dogs from Mid-Michigan Kennels. The sheriff’s department has already purchased a black Labrador, but the Jasper Police Department has yet to purchase their new dog.

The sheriff’s department chose the Labrador for its amiable temperament and intelligence. The department would like the dog to fulfill two roles, drug detection and tracking of lost individuals and fugitives.

Deputy Brad Kendall is the new dog handler for the sheriff’s department. He named the new dog “Judge” because he felt the name was appropriate for what it would be doing. Judge will join Kendall in April and begin to become familiar with him before they head to Michigan for training. Kendall and Judge will join Jasper officer Bower for the five weeks of training in Michigan.

Judge was originally slated to work with handicapped individuals, but didn’t have the temperament for the work, so he was picked up by Mid-Michigan Kennels for police training. “This is good because Judge has been acclimated to being in the public already,” Kendall explained.

Kendall has been with the sheriff’s department for 13 years and has been a deputy since 2007. Kendall stated he started asking about becoming involved in a K-9 program his first year as a deputy, but fiscal and manpower issues precluded the department from investing in the program.

The sheriff has worked hard to get the department up to full force since taking office. The department has been reorganized to operate more efficiently, and with that accomplished, the sheriff decided the time was right to approach the council and commissioners about adding a K-9 unit back to the department.

“The response from the community has been phenomenal,” Kendall said. “Just phenomenal; the people that have called up and are happy with what we are doing. We had a guy come to us twice before we even had the fund set up for donations. We had to turn him away, but the day we received the approval, I called him at one and he was at the department by three with a check.”

Kendall explained the donations by stating there are a lot of people that have pride in the county and want to
make it better. “If the community didn’t react the way they did, we wouldn’t be doing this,” Kendall said.

The new addition was essential for the department to expand it’s drug investigation and interdiction efforts. Kendall and Judge will compliment the efforts by the department’s new narcotics officer, Deputy John Anderson.

The move also allows a dog to be readily available throughout the county when the need arises.

The sheriff stated depending on how things go with the new dog, the department will consider a second K-9 unit in the future, but the department would be looking at a dog that detects explosives and incendiary devices.

“I just want to thank everyone in the community for their support,” Kendall said.

Chief Bennett and Sheriff Lampert echoed Kendall’s sentiments and stated it was incredible to live and work for such a great community.