Two more dogs wanted for Green Bay K-9 unit

Two new dogs and dog handlers could join the Green Bay Police Department’s canine program by April, if fundraising efforts are successful.

The department is about halfway to its goal of raising $20,000 in private donations toward acquiring and training two dogs and hiring two handlers, Chief Jim Arts said Wednesday.

The handlers would be selected from the department’s police officers who have requested the assignment, Arts said.

The plan is to have one of the new dogs trained to work with a community police officer in narcotic searches in a 7 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. shift. Twelve community police officers are assigned to specific geographic areas of the city, and a six-person task force works on community policing issues throughout the city. The new dog and dog handler would be assigned to that task force.

The other new dog would be trained to search for drugs, missing persons and suspects, and for assisting in arrests. The dog and handler would work normal patrol duties on the afternoon shift, 2:15 to 10:45 p.m.

The new dogs and handlers would join a team of three dogs and handlers that has been working in the city since 2001. The team includes one drug dog and two trained in a wider variety of tasks.

The department hopes to acquire the dogs, assign the officers and have them begin training April 20.

Start-up costs, which include purchase, training, veterinary bills, dog food and similar expenses, would be about $20,000 for the year, Arts said. Maintaining the addition to the program should cost no more than about $4,000 a year thereafter, he said.

Steinig Tal Kennels of Campbellsport will supply the dogs and training, which involves up to 24 weeks for the dogs alone and three to four weeks for the dogs and their handlers.

The department’s personnel costs won’t change, because the dog handlers would come from existing police staff, and they’ll continue to perform the normal duties of police officers along with their dog-handling duties.

The announced expansion comes just a year after Arts had threatened to shut down the canine program out of concerns that it was too expensive.

He struck the program from the 2008 budget but reinstated it after renegotiations with the police union over its labor contract. Previously, dog handlers were treated differently under the contract from other police officers, resulting in scheduling and vacation issues that Arts said added to the cost of the canine program.

The police union made several concessions that brought those dog handlers’ schedules more in line with what other officers faced, and that brought expenses down and increased management’s flexibility, Arts said.

The program expansion wouldn’t be possible without the union’s concessions, he said.

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