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09/24/2019 03:04 PMThanks to a substantial donation from a local company, the Clinton Police Department’s K-9 unit will be outfitted with a new car that the police chief says will help the department better serve the community.
Police Chief Vincent DeMaio said that finding a new car for the unit had become a dire need. The vehicle the department had been using, a 2013 Dodge Charger, has become “pretty much unusable,” he said.
Fortunately, an anonymous donor approached the department with an offer to donate a fully equipped 2018 Ford Police Interceptor for the K-9 unit. The vehicle was officially purchased for $1 from the police department budget. The expenditure was approved by the Board of Selectman (BOS) at its Sept 11 meeting.
“It’s just fantastic for the department, it expands our service at no cost to the taxpayers,” said DeMaio.
DeMaio said that the donor requested to be anonymous, but added that it was a local company that has donated needed items to other police departments in the past. DeMaio said that the department has no direct dealings with this company and that the department checked with its attorney to make sure there was no ethics violation in accepting the vehicle.
“We’re very grateful to them. It’s a great windfall for the department and a great windfall for the town,” said DeMaio, who also called the donation “very generous.”
Due to the extra weight of the equipment in a police car and time the car is spent running, police vehicles can phase out of their service life faster than someone’s personal car. Occasionally an older car that is in decent shape will be repurposed by the department to use for other jobs besides police work, such as construction detail. However, DeMaio said that the previous K-9 car was in such bad shape that the department couldn’t salvage it and it will be disposed of.
A K-9 vehicle is different than a typical police vehicle due to the equipment that is needed to keep the dog safe.
“You have to have a designated car for it,” DeMaio said.
For example, there is a cage for the dog in the back of the car as well as a special system that allows for the dog to easily exit the vehicle. There are also fans that will turn on to make sure the dog doesn’t overheat if the officer out of the car.
The department already has the new Interceptor, which is currently being outfitted communication equipment. DeMaio said the car should be on the road in about two weeks and will be in service for about five years.
In early 2017, the BOS voted to reestablish the K-9 program after it had been abandoned years earlier. A German shepherd named Sonny was paired with Officer Jason Frey, the department’s K-9 officer, and officially on patrol later that year. Since then the department has credited Sonny for helping the department in a number of different scenarios such as narcotics detection, de-escalation tactics, and searches.
Sonny has his own Instagram account with close to 50,000 followers. The account can be found under the username Clinton_police_k9. DeMaio called the account the department’s “community outreach branch” and said that it was one of Sonny’s many followers that reached out to the department to donate the car.