Glenwood Police Department Gets Approval To Reinstate K-9 Unit

The Glenwood Police Department has started the process of bringing back its K-9 unit.\

The department was given the green light last week by the Glenwood City Council to reinstate and begin fundraising for a K-9 unit.

Glenwood Police Chief Eic Johansen told city council members the K-9 will be a single-purpose dog and be handled by Officer Caleb Severn.

“We’ve discussed the pros cons of K-9 units, whether it be dual purpose, single purpose, multi-purpose,” Johansen said. “The conclusion we came to is we want to obtain a dog like we’ve had in the past where they’re a drug-sniff dog with the ability to track and do article search. So, they’re not an apprehension dog, they’re not a bite dog. If for some reason, Officer Severn would choose to leave the department, it’s a dog that anybody could keep or hang on to deploy.”

In addition to narcotics detection, Severn told council members the dog could be used for tracking lost juveniles or endangered, elderly adults. He also presented the council with a price tag for the program.

“For the program costs, with the trainer that we’ve been looking at, we’re looking at $10,500. That includes the dog, all the training to have it completely ready, and then a two-to-four week K-9 handler academy,” he said. “So far we’ve got $1,500 in pledged donations from people that have committed to donating to it. We have also been looking at the possibility of using opioid settlement funds as well as asset forfeiture funds. Then any additional funding needed, we would look for grant opportunities and community donations.”

Severn noted that two GPD cruisers are already outfitted for a K-9 unit.

The department is planning to acquire the dog from a dealer in Arkansas, which has provided K-9s to other law enforcement agencies in the area.

“I’ve gotten some references and the Iowa State Patrol gets pretty much all of their dogs through him now along with Montgomery County, Guthrie County, and Waterloo,” he said. “Omaha gets quite a few dogs from them and the Nebraska State Patrol.

Our two K-9s in the county both came from this guy and they said they would never go anywhere else.”

If the start-up funds are raised by the end of October, Severn said the dog would be ready to join the police force in February or March. He added that annual expenses for the dog would likely be between$1,500 - $2,000.