The Fort Mitchell Police Department hasn’t been the same since K9 Officer Tony’s retirement in April of this year.
However, thanks to a check from the Kenton County Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, the city was able to recruit a new K9 officer and can now continue its K9 program without burdening taxpayers with the cost.
K9 Officer “Gunny” is a 14-month-old German Shepherd. His handlers said he is excited, energetic and already trained. Over the coming months, Gunny will be working with officer Shane Best to learn commands. Best was also the partner of the department’s previous K9 and he said he is looking forward to working with a K9 again.
“I appreciate the second chance,” Best said to the Fort Mitchell City Council at the June 24 council meeting.
Councilmember Jerry Deatherage, in turn, thanked Best for stepping up for this role again.
“I know it’s not an easy challenge,” Deatherage said.
In 2016, Best led a fundraising campaign for Fort Mitchell to get K9 Officer Tony. Due to budget constraints, the Fort Mitchell Police Department thought they would have to raise the money themselves again to support this K9.
That proved unnecessary. Commonwealth Attorney Rob Sanders made a donation on behalf of the Kenton County Commonwealth Attorney’s Office to cover 100% of the costs associated with bringing on and supporting K9 Gunny.
“The money used for the purchase of this K9 came from funds seized from convicted drug dealers,” Sanders told the council. “We are very limited in what we can use that money for, but law enforcement purchases such as drug detection dogs are one of the things we can do.”
Sanders also explained why Fort Mitchell would not “imprint” K9 Gunny with marijuana.
“A lot of people don’t realize, one of the downsides to the legalization of medical marijuana in Kentucky is that 10 out of 12 police dogs in Kenton County would have to be retired because they have been imprinted with marijuana,” Sanders said.
This means that when those dogs were trained to detect narcotics, all marijuana was considered an illegal substance in Kentucky. So, they were not taught to detect any difference between cocaine, meth, and other still illegal drugs and marijuana. The dogs that can’t tell the difference will need to be retired. Now that Kentucky has legalized medical marijuana and Kenton County cities are deciding on their own limits, K9 drug detection will require more nuance.
Fort Mitchell will sidestep this issue with their new K9 by not marijuana-imprinting Gunny at all.
“It means everything. It means that we are at the forefront of drugs coming through our streets in Northern Kentucky,” Councilmember Vicki Boerger said. “We can back up other departments. Having a K9 is extremely beneficial to this department.”
Mayor Jude Hehman said that he feels they have a responsibility to the rest of Northern Kentucky.
“In the past, our K9 has been used to help in drug detection and finding missing persons across the county,” Hehman said. “Because of that, we didn’t want to just use Fort Mitchell taxpayer money to fund this. We’re very grateful that the Commonwealth Attorney donated to cover all of the K9 costs.”