Photos of Police K9 Program

Here are some photos of the police K9 program taken by Brad Kava of Patch.com for a recent article. The Patch article focused on a new way the community can support the K9 program - by purchasing a small stuffed police dog!

K-9 Unit Sees Positive Changes Ahead in 2012

Lt. Larry Richard, Commander of the Santa Cruz Police Department's K-9 Unit took some time to provide an overview of the Unit. Here are his thoughts: 

2011 was a year of changes to the Santa Cruz Police Department’s K-9 Unit.  We saw the retirement of “Jax” who was a great K-9 partner to Officer Karina Cecena and an asset to the community.  We chronicled his long journey to retirement.  Since that time, we have added two new K-9’s, “Layko” and “Lobo” to the team.  “Layko” is a Belgian Malinois and “Lobo” is a German Shepherd.  Their handlers, Officers Jose Garcia and Saul Rodriguez, have been busy training with their partners in many facets of police K-9 handling.  In addition to the new K-9’s and handlers, the Unit has introduced a new K-9 Unit Supervisor, Sergeant Warren Barry.  Sergeant Barry’s name is familiar in K-9 circles as he was a former handler with SCPD.  Sgt. Barry's police K-9 “Dani” passed away in 2011 and was honored by the City Council and Police Department for his service. As a Unit, we look forward to 2012 and introducing our newest K-9’s to the community. 

K-9 Commander, Lt Larry Richard