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Logan Twp. police seek new K-9

Courtesy photo Logan Township Police K-9 Vilo, shown here during a demonstration, is retiring due to medical issues.

Logan Township Police are looking to select the next K-9 officer as their current police dog, Vilo, is retiring because of medical issues.

“Logan Township has a storied tradition with police K-9s, and with Vilo’s pending retirement, we want to maintain that tradition,” Logan Township Police Chief Tim Mercer said.

Getting a new police dog selected and trained is not only a lengthy process, but an expensive one. While the township will pick up the cost of a new, fully equipped Ford Police Interceptor SUV at a cost of $37,000 and will pay for the dog’s ongoing care, the Blair County District Attorney’s Office and Operation Our Town are also pitching in.

Operation Our Town has set up a Gofundme.com account to help pay for the next dog, one that will cost about $14,000 for the animal as well as the six weeks of initial training the next K-9 handler will undergo.

“We work hard everyday to make our community a safer place to live and play, and a police K-9 with its heightened senses of smell, hearing and sight greatly assists us in protecting the community,” Mercer said.

Vilo, a German Shepherd, has been on the job in Logan Township since 2012. His handler, Officer Matthew Lutz, began working with Vilo in 2008 when Lutz was with the Tyrone Police Department, and although Vilo was set to retire this year anyway, a recent medical issue has sidelined the dog and will likely mean he sees limited action from now on.

“It’s a big responsibility for someone who has a family,” said Lutz, who since he was partnered with Vilo has gotten married and started a family. “Initially, you would never know what all that responsibility involves.”

It’s not a 9-5 job where you can put the dog in a kennel at night and then wake him in the morning to go to work.

“It’s an everyday thing,” Lutz said. “It demands a lot of attention.”

Mercer said Vilo has been “the face of the police K-9s in the area” and will be missed.

“He’s a very special dog,” Mercer said. “Even though he is trained as an aggressive patrol dog, he has a unique and infectious personality.”

Mercer said while Vilo’s drug-sniffing capabilities have been crucial to searches of vehicles and buildings, he’s also valuable on patrol. It’s impossible to know how many times Vilo’s mere presence at a scene has kept a suspect in check and avoided a physical confrontation that could have ended in an officer’s injury, he pointed out.

“He’s a beautiful dog that has interacted with the community for 10 years at public events, and he has conducted locker searches in every Blair County school district and even some outside the county,” Mercer said.

Mercer said the department plans on offering the new K-9’s services to the surrounding communities and other departments as well.

Three officers at Logan Township have expressed interest in being the next K-9 handler, the chief said. On Aug. 1, those officers will be put in front of a panel of experts to test their knowledge followed by site visits to the officers’ homes to ensure they will be conducive to a police dog. Interaction between the family and other pets is important, Mercer said, to make sure the transition into the home is seamless.

Once selected, a group from the department will head to a kennel in western Pennsylvania to scout prospective dogs and then make a selection after a series of tests.

The new dog will be trained in narcotics detection as well as tracking, and once an animal is selected, the kennel will start the training process. In October, the officer handler will spend six weeks with the dog at the kennel for the initial training. From there, the pair will undergo bi-weekly training and attend a weeklong summer training to maintain the proper certifications, Mercer noted.

Mirror Staff Writer Greg Bock is at 946-7458.

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