Zanesville officer who was shot trains with new K-9 partner

A new officer with the Zanesville Police Department will be on the streets.

He’s rather young, only 17 months old, has rather long dark hair, walks on all fours and does a lot of tail wagging. Until he has to apprehend someone then Tino, a German shepherd, has speed, lots of strong muscle on his 80-pound frame and very big, sharp teeth.

Tino is being trained with his partner, Officer Mike Schiele, at Pine Grove Kennel LLC in Reedsville.

Schiele has been training with Tino since his first partner, Bosco, retired to an ambassador position after both he and Schiele were shot Aug. 23.

Schiele was shot once in the leg, while Bosco took two bullets that almost killed him. Bosco, who was paralyzed for a time, since has made a miraculous recovery and is back home with Schiele and his family, although he returns to The Ohio State University Veterinary Hospital three times a week for intense therapy.

But Tino is willing and ready to join the force and begin his new job.

“He’s doing great,” Schiele said, as he watched Tino play with master trainer Steven Heater Monday. “He’s fitting right in at home and does great with Bosco. I think they both know Bosco is the alpha dog, and Tino seems OK with that.”

Tino was in training for six weeks before his training started with Schiele. The two are now half way through their six-week training session.

“But he’s a quick learner,” said Heater, who has trained 278 dogs for law enforcement agencies throughout Ohio and West Virginia. “It only took four hours before Tino knew exactly how to sniff out all four odors of narcotics. Some dogs it takes a lot longer. He’s smart, that’s for sure.”

In the first six weeks, Heater taught Tino his basics in narcotics, tracking, bite work and searches.

Now Tino and Schiele are finding their own rhythm together.

Not every dog is successful at becoming a K-9 officer, Heater said.

“You have to have a dog with an even temperament, not one that is mean. A good K-9 has to be very active and wants to retrieve. The dog will want to hunt, go out in the woods, but also be a protector. I look and see if a dog will stand and fight or if he backs away. Backing away is not a good sign.”

Tino was put through his paces Monday morning and was in a training room at the camp searching for narcotics.

“They think this is all a game,” Heater said. “They get a prize, or the toy they like, when they find the drugs. Then we take the toy away from them. It makes the drive to get that toy back high and they’ll want to find it over and over and over again.”

Heater said he first got interested in training dogs when he was 12 and started showing dogs.

“This is really the only job I could find that allows me to do what I love,” Heater said. Heater was previously with Meigs County Sheriff’s Office and then the Athens County Sheriff’s Office, both times as a K-9 handler.

Like Schiele, Heater credits one of his K-9 partners, Calypso, with saving his life. A suspect attempted to take Heater’s gun away from him and Calypso apprehended the suspect.

While Calypso and Heater’s other K-9 partner, Andi, are no longer with him, Heater does have Sinja, who also helps train officers like Schiele.

Tino will be part of Schiele’s family once they finish training and Heater believes a K-9 partner should be treated like a family member.

“Genetically, a dog is a wolf,” Heater said. “Which means they’re a pack animal. If you put the dog with the family, the family becomes the dogs pack. If you isolate the dog, the dog will not be as happy or content. Dogs are never by themselves. They’re either with another dog or a person. They have to feel part of something.”

Heater said officers like Schiele are important to any department.

“There are two types of officers who become K-9 handlers,” Heater said. “There are those who seek the glory and those who really want to make a difference in law enforcement. A good K-9 officer has to be passionate about his work and his partner. The dog is who an officer spends almost all his time with. They’re with each other at work and at home.”

Schiele said he looks forward to hitting the streets with Tino.

“He’s energetic, sociable and loves to work,” Schiele said. “He’s very happy and an affectionate dog. I know it might be hard on Bosco to see me go off to work with Tino the first couple of times, but I’ve been taking Bosco in the cruiser a couple of places and he’s going to have his own special job.”

By Kathy Thompson

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NJ Officers getting stun guns, but policy contains limits

New Jersey became the last state in the country to authorize stun-gun use yesterday, although only in a limited capacity.

In a policy issued by Attorney General Anne Milgram, officers can use stun guns to subdue mentally ill individuals who have weapons and will not surrender.

Only a few officers in each police department will be permitted to use stun guns under the new policy. One officer can use a stun gun in municipalities with fewer than 25,000 people, while up to four can in municipalities with at least 75,000 residents. SWAT team members also can carry stun guns.

“This is the first time in this state that officers are going to be authorized to carry and use stun guns in any capacity,” Milgram said. “Given this important shift in policy, it is prudent to have a limited initial deployment that provides for adequate controls, training and accountability measures so that we can evaluate the use of such devices.”

Milgram spokesman David Wald said a trained officer should be on call either at the local police department or nearby.

According to the policy, police are not supposed to use stun guns to make people comply with orders or to stop them from committing property damage or fleeing a scene.

Groups like Amnesty International and the American Medical Association have expressed concern that stun guns are being used too often, sometimes with deadly results.

State Police Benevolent Association president Anthony Wieners, who represents 33,000 police officers, said the policy is too restrictive.

“With proper training, it should be able to be used like any other tool the officers are provided with, like a baton or pepper spray,” he said.

Wieners said the attorney general’s guidelines failed to give the state’s police officers enough access to nonlethal force.

“The goal was to give legitimate options to officers,” he said. “This does not do that.”

In 2007, a schizophrenic with a knife was shot and killed by officers in Maplewood, an incident that spurred state law enforcement to consider the use of stun guns.

“Some alternative to deadly force should have been available,” Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow said yesterday. “This and other incidents that happened around the same time were the lightning rods.”

She said it was smart to deploy stun guns in a limited capacity and then revisit the issue at a later time.

Wald said individual departments will be responsible for obtaining training and buying their stun guns.

By Chris Megerian

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Injured Sandy Springs Cop Back at Work

Men and women who work in law enforcement go to work everyday knowing they may not make it back home and their families live with that knowledge too. Sam Worsham is a Sandy Springs police officer who was critically injured on the job and lived to tell about it.

Worsham said for as long as he can remember, he wanted to make a difference, so he chose law enforcement.

“You always have to expect the unexpected,” said Worsham.

In August of 2008, Officer Worsham was on his motorcycle answering a call, when a car pulled out in front of him.

“I knew we were going to hit all the way,” said Worsham. “I swerved to the left as hard as I could.”

When Worsham landed, his bike was a mangled mess in the middle of Roswell and Abernathy Roads.

“I had a broken tibia on my left leg and several broken toes on my feet. I also broke my hip, pelvis my tailbone was broken in a couple of places. There were pieces of my femur all over Roswell Road,” said Officer Worsham.

“I remember getting there and there just being a swarm of police, there were just police everywhere,” said Worsham’s wife, Marie.

Marie Worsham said she was afraid when she arrived at Grady Hospital, fearing at one point her husband and father to her three boys, was already dead.

“Everybody was talking about how bad the crash was and how bad his injuries were, how serious it was and I just kept thinking this is, you know, thank God he’s not dead and everything else we can handle,” said Marie Worsham.

After weeks of surgeries, one even involving putting a titanium rod in his leg, Sam Worsham was transferred to Emory for weeks of rehab.

Sam Worsham was determined to be a police officer again.

“They said he would be in a wheelchair six months and it was six weeks. So, he has an incredibly strong will,” said Marie Worsham

Officer Worsham met his goal and returned to light desk duty just four months after the accident and was back on patrol seven months later.

“It’s one of those life defining moments. You know its like you come to a point and it’s like I can choose to give up and quit or I can choose to survive and go on and you know, I choose to survive,” said Sam Worsham.

At age 40 and still on the mend, Sam Worsham tried out for the SWAT team.

“It nearly killed me. I think I had a few heart attacks on the run and going up and down the hills and through the obstacle course. You know, I’m looking at all these 20-year-old somethings and I’m saying you’re out of your element,” said Worsham.

Sixteen men tried out for the SWAT team and six of them made it, including Worsham.

“I always wanted to do SWAT because when people need help they call police. When police need help they call SWAT,” said Worsham.

Officer Worsham said he still isn’t 100 percent, but he’s working on it. Worsham said he is also doing all he can until SWAT school starts, that’s when the heavy-duty training starts.

By Amanda Davis

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