Officers have vested interest in keeping four-legged partners safe

YAKIMA, Wash. – Patrol dogs are trained to go into dangerous situations, sometimes engaging a suspect with just their bare teeth and raw muscle power.

Yakima County sheriff’s deputies and police officers say they make sure that their canine partners have as much protection as possible when they leap into harm’s way, both with body armor or fellow officers backing them up.

“It’s something you really want to protect,” said Yakima police officer Jim Yates, a police-dog trainer and handler of patrol dogs. “He’s a partner that rides with us.”

Protection for police dogs can be expensive, and some departments have to rely on the kindness of the community to come up with the cash donations to buy bullet- and stab-proof vests.

Even when the vests are available, handlers say it’s not practical for the dogs to wear them all the time, unlike their human partners, due to weather conditions and mobility issues.

Dogs in service

Dogs have been used in police work since the 1880s, when German police agencies started using German shepherds as patrol dogs. Today, many police dogs come from Eastern Europe, where they are bred and trained for the work.

In Washington, about 87 agencies employ dogs for such tasks as tracking suspects, looking for evidence and detecting drugs and bombs, according to the state Criminal Justice Training Commission.

The Yakima County Sheriff’s Office has two dogs, one used for detecting drugs and the other, Zuza, a patrol dog.

The Yakima Police Department, which has used dogs since 2004, has one dog that is in the process of completing training, Yates said.

Getting a dog is a significant investment for a department, and is usually funded by donations from the community. Dogs start at $10,000, and when the training is factored in, the price tag can go as high as $20,000, said sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Tucker.

Like human officers, dogs can be attacked – and sometimes killed – in the line of duty.

From 2008 to 2017, 251 police dogs died in the line of duty. Seventy were shot and 12 were stabbed during that time period, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, which tracks deaths of police officers and police dogs nationwide. The others died from various causes, including drowning, being hit by vehicles and heat exhaustion. In that same period, two police dogs were fatally shot and two were stabbed to death in Washington state, according to the website.

The most recent police-dog killing in Washington was Ike, a Belgian Malinois with the Vancouver police, who was stabbed to death Sept. 2, 2015, when he was helping apprehend a suspect with multiple warrants.

Local dogs

Tucker and Yakima police Capt. Gary Jones, who commands the patrol division, said there have been incidents in which suspects have tried to attack dogs, but no shootings.

On June 30, Zuza, the sheriff’s patrol dog, was punched and choked by a suspect she was sent to get in a crawl space of a Zillah-area home, according to court documents. The suspect, 53-year-old Gary Lee Schademan Jr. of Outlook, is awaiting trial on charges of attempting to harm a police dog, violating a protection order and resisting arrest.

Zuza was not hurt in the incident, Detective Sgt. Judd Towell said earlier. She was wearing the vest at the time, said sheriff’s spokesman Casey Schilperoort.

Both the sheriff’s office and YPD have been able to get vests, either with donations or as a budgeted expense for the department. Jones and Tucker said they consider the vests to be standard equipment for the dogs.

The vests, which can cost as much as $2,500, shield a dog’s torso and offer protection from gunshots and stabbing.

Yates said most people being attacked by a dog don’t usually think about going for the dog’s unprotected head or neck, and instead concentrate their blows on the dog’s torso. “The vest is going to protect their vital areas,” he said.

Tucker said the sheriff’s office does not have a vest for its drug-detection dog as it is usually deployed in a situation where the scene has been secured and risks are minimal.

Protection

Dogs don’t wear vests every time they go out on patrol. Yates and Tucker said a couple factors go into deciding whether to suit up the dog.

A main factor is weather. If it’s hot, officers are less likely to use the vest, as it increases the risks that the dog will overheat.

“You have to weigh how long you are going to have to keep the armor on the dog,” Yates said.

One trick is to slip ice packs under the vest to keep the dog cool, Yates said.

Another factor is the situation. Jones said if it’s a higher risk situation, such as a standoff with an armed suspect, handlers and dogs will don extra protection.

Tucker said when Zuza is searching for a suspect, she and her handler are backed up by a pair of deputies whose sole responsibility is to protect the dog team. Zuza’s handler also carries first-aid supplies solely for her.

Sometimes the dog may not want to wear the vest, as it can restrict movement. Tucker said the dogs need to be trained from an early age to wear vests and learn how to move quickly while wearing the armor.

There is no state policy requiring police agencies to outfit dogs with body armor, said Tisha Jones, peace officer and canine certification manager with the Criminal Justice Training Commission. Each department decides whether to get body armor.

Tucker and Yates said that vests are seen as a way of protecting an expensive investment by the agency or the community. Used vests are not an option, as each one is individually tailored to the dog.

There are groups that help raise money to pay for vests.

One is Massachusetts-based Vested Interest in K9s, which allows donors to either donate to a general fund that pays for dog vests. People also can pay $950 to sponsor a custom-made vest for a dog at a particular agency.

Since 2009, the group has donated 3,080 vests, said Sandy Marcal, Vested Interest in K9’s president.