Clinton Police Officer Jason Frey and his partner Sonny spend more time training than the average officers. That’s in part because Sonny, a German shepherd, has a wide set of skills that need to stay focused—but it’s also in part a recognition that some are keeping a close eye on the Clinton Police Department (CPD) K9 unit.

Frey has been careful to take extra care with Sonny after a 2013 incident in which the department’s previous dog, Ace, bit a five-year-old child during a tour of the police station.

“We are cognizant of that and it’s a concern,” said Sergeant Jeremiah Dunn, who oversees the K9 unit.

“I have safeguards,” Frey said. “I’m always weighing the pros and cons of situations.”

For example, Frey said he doesn’t take Sonny into crowds—“There’s always a time people want to pet the dog.”

The K9 unit has been on patrol since late October 2017. In March 2017, the Board of Selectman voted to reestablish the K-9 program after it had been abandoned. In the interim, Sonny underwent about 800 hours of training over the course of six months.

Now, intensive training remains part of the partners’ day-to-day life.

There are two types of training, Frey explained. There is a mandatory, two days a month/16 hours that Sonny attends in Fairfield County, along with 59 units from other towns.

“It’s cool to see, there’s almost a million dollars’ worth of dogs out there doing training at once,” Frey said.

All facets of Sonny’s training are covered in each session, including drills for narcotics detection and trafficking, de-escalation tactics, searches, evidence recovery, and apprehensions.

In addition to the mandatory sessions, there’s what Frey called “everyday training,” putting Sonny through at least one aspect of his work each day.

“You can do 16 hours a month and have an okay dog, or you can do it once a day and have a good dog,” Frey said.

Frey said a key to the training is that in every session, he and Sonny “always finish on a positive note.” If Sonny makes a mistake, whether in routine training or in field work, Frey will let Sonny rest for a period, then take him back out training, rewarding him with his favorite toy, a rope.

Frey noted that failure for a person and for a dog may be two different things. Sonny might successfully track a suspect on the run to a parked car that has since left the scene, in which case Frey takes his partner for a training exercise to ensure Sonny knows he’s ended on a successful note.

Frey said Sonny is primarily used on narcotics calls.

“Mostly we find heroin or crack cocaine,” said Frey, who admits he thought he would be finding marijuana more often.

Frey said that he has already observed Sonny make finds he believes wouldn’t have been made if he were not on the force. (Find a video of Sonny doing narcotics training at the police station with this story at www.zip06.com.)

The Clinton Police Department raised more than $15,000 through fundraisers and donations to train and purchase Sonny, who is named after Sonny Whelen, the owner of Whelen Engineering in Chester, who made a significant contribution to reestablish the K-9 program.

For more photos and videos of Sonny, Frey has set up an Instagram account for himself and Sonny, under the username Clinton_police_k9.