By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
The Glendive City Council will be sniffing around the idea of buying a K-9 unit for the Glendive Police Department after one of the city’s police officers made a passionate presentation requesting one at Wednesday’s meeting of the city Finance, Utilities, Property and Recreation Committee.
GPD Officer Jonathan Lopez made the request for the police dog to the FUPR committee, backed by his brothers in blue, six of whom packed the back of the council chamber to show their support for the idea.
Lopez, who moved to Glendive from Ohio, where he also served as a police officer, has worked the past eight months with the GPD and before that, had worked for Child Protective Services. Lopez said his experience on the job both with the GPD and with CPS has led him to the conclusion that Glendive has a sizeable drug problem and that he believes the city could use “another tool” to combat that issue.
“During this time, I realized this city has a big drug problem, especially meth and marijuana,” Lopez told the FUPR Committee. “Due to this, a lot of families are losing their kids to CPS, I know that first hand from working with them.”
Lopez rattled off a number of stats compiled by the local Montana Highway Patrol district’s K-9 Mika, who has only been on the job since November. Lopez noted that since then, Mika has interdicted 736 pounds of marijuana, 12.2 ounces of meth, and sizeable quantities of other drugs including cocaine, heroin and other hard narcotics. He said that given Mika’s success during her short time on the job with MHP, he believes a K-9 unit can have the same kind of impact for the GPD.
“By having the dog, I’m sure it will decrease the number of drugs coming into town,” Lopez said. “I don’t believe it’s going to get rid of all of it, but I do believe it will decrease it.”
Besides reducing the number of drugs in the community, Lopez argued his belief that a K-9 unit could help reduce other crimes as well.
“Having a K-9 is also going to help decrease other crimes in the area — assault, theft, domestic violence, and the big one here in Montana, child abuse and neglect, drug DUIs, property damage and accidents,” Lopez said.
Lopez noted that he is recommending the GPD get a dual-purpose dog rather than a single-purpose dog (one trained in a single task, like drug interdiction) in order to maximize the K-9 unit’s usefulness to the community.
“A dual-purpose dog is going to do alarm calls, area and building searches, suspect tracking, track missing persons, narcotics, and they’ll participate in educational demonstrations and school searches,” Lopez said.
He also argued that having a police dog would help the GPD operate more efficiently.
“A canine is also going to reduce the number of officer hours when we’re doing searches ... a dog can do it in half the time,” Lopez said.
There are two police dog training kennels that Lopez has contacted about getting a dog from, one in Kansas and one in Pennsylvania. Both require the officer to travel to the location for several weeks of intense training with their paired dog. The cost for the dog and training could run up to $18,000, based on the estimates Lopez provided.
However, Lopez said that he is not asking the city to fund that cost. He noted that he has been working with Kathy McLane, the rural economic development representative for Mid-Rivers Communications, and Christine Whitlatch, executive director of the Glendive Chamber of Commerce, to find grants and other funding opportunities to cover the cost of buying the dog and sending Lopez to train with it.
“That’s how I’m planning to fund this, is through grants and fundraisers,” Lopez said.
FUPR Committee members had a few questions. Councilman Mike Dryden asked Lopez what would happen with the dog should he be out on vacation or if he should leave the GPD for another job.
Lopez responded that K-9 units are specifically paired with the officer they train with, and so cannot simply be handed off to another officer. He added that if the city wanted to have another officer be able to take control of the dog if he became unavailable, they would have to pay to send a second officer to the initial training with it, otherwise, the dog would be all but useless to any other GPD officers.
“It’s difficult to have another officer work with that dog, so if I’m on vacation or out of the office, that is an issue,” Lopez said.
Lopez offered to sign a contract with the city saying he would remain with the GPD for “X number of years” if they were willing to approve the purchase of the dog and send him to training. Councilman Gerald Reichert commended Lopez for his “very generous offer” but told him he would “hate to see (Lopez) do that” and encumber himself in that manner.
Asked by Reichert how long a K-9 unit can be expected to last on the job, Lopez responded that “A normal dog can go eight to 10 years.”
Councilwoman Avis Anderson said that she liked the idea of a K-9 unit, “but financially, I don’t know,” as Lopez indicated the cost of care for the dog would add an estimated $1,200 to $1,500 to the GPD’s annual budget.
Asked for his opinion on the matter, Assistant Police Chief Jake Feist said he is currently undecided, saying he has questions about the cost to the department and “other questions” as well.
“I’m not opposed to it, but I’m not 100 percent for it at this time either,” Feist said.
The FUPR Committee ultimately decided to place the item on this Tuesday’s city council agenda, not as a recommendation, but as an “FYI.” Mayor Jerry Jimison suggested that course, saying he felt the other four council members not on FUPR needed the chance to weigh in with their thoughts on the matter before the council makes any decision.
“This is a pretty big item and agenda, so I think the other four (council members) should be brought up to speed before they’re asked to vote on it,” Jimison said.
While no decision was made and city officials had questions about the proposal, all commended Lopez for his efforts in researching the issue and bringing it to the city.
“I commend Officer Lopez. He’s been doing a lot of work trying to get this done outside of using taxpayer money,” Feist said.
“What you talk about would be great for our town, our community and our people,” Dryden added.
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.