Tumwater’s new K9 handler has been deployed on the field since January, said Lieutenant Ken Driver during his update to the Public Health and Safety Committee on February 14.
Driver reported that Police Officer Chase Grimmett was selected as the new canine handler early last year. He completed 400 hours of K9 training and was certified as a K9 handler in December 2022.
He joined Police Officer Russ Mize, who has been the city’s canine handler since the K9 program started in 2006. Mize is set to retire this year and has been mentoring Grimmett to replace him.
Mize’s current K9 partner James is also set to retire and will be replaced by Thor, a two-year-old Belgian Malinois.
Driver also gave an update on the number of times the canine unit was deployed in the previous years, noting that there was a drastic decrease in the deployment of the unit for narcotics cases.
According to Driver, the K9 unit was deployed as much as 18 times two years ago but was only deployed five times in 2021 and three times in 2022.
Driver explained that this was due to the Covid-19 pandemic and legislative changes such as the 2021 Blake decision, which ruled the state’s felony drug possession law unconstitutional.
For non-narcotics cases, the canine unit was deployed 15 times in 2022, which was around the same figure as the previous years.
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Drutty
Do they have bullet proof vests for the dogs?
Thursday, February 16, 2023 Report this