Greencastle Police add second K9, embarks on SRO officer for Greencastle Schools

As a veteran police officer, Greencastle Police Chief Christopher Jones knows the role a K9 can have in a department.

From sniffing out narcotics to helping find a missing person, the Greencastle Police Department has benefitted from the efforts of its K9, Ziva. 

"We have Ziva, who came on board a few years ago with Officer Taylor and they are doing a great job. That is one person and one K9 and that only covers 20-25 percent of our shift on patrol," Jones told The Putnam County Post. 

Enter the department's second K9, a 2-year old German Shepherd named Gunner. 

"He was a rescue and was a German Shepherd that was abandoned in Hendricks County. There is a program called Redemption Ranch that is run by one of the Plainfield K9 officers and they identify dogs that are left in shelters all around the Indianapolis urban area. They have an eye for it and pick out dogs that may have a high success rate as a K9 in law enforcement. Gunner was selected and they took him and started working with him and said he would do great. We were able to get on with that program and Gunner is part of the Greencastle Police Department, working with Officer Billy Dewitt, who was selected to be our next K9 officer," Jones said. 

The police chief said Redemption Ranch has been a huge asset to local departments. 

"It is at no cost. Typically, when departments are looking at K9s, it costs 10 to 15 thousand dollars to get the animal and get it trained. They are hand selecting the K9s, determining they will be a high success rate and are giving them to these departments and supplying all their initial needs like vet bills, food and shelter at no cost to the department. Obviously, we have to make a commitment and there are some costs we have to supply, but to get on board and go across that 10 to 15 thousand mark that you are saving and get this resource into the community, it is a great program," Jones said. 

Jones said the K9 and his handler have been working together and Gunner has already made an impact.

"He has already been deployed and he already has an arrest and things are going good," Jones said. 

Jones said with two K9s his department is able to cover more ground and combat crime even better. 

"Our second K9 automatically doubles the coverage and gives us more coverage. These K9s are great. They can smell so many thousand times better than a human. They always look forward to going to work, unlike humans and we don't have to do anything to get them fired up. They are great tools and resources for tracking and finding narcotics. Being able to add that resource has been super," Jones said. 

Jones said while the dogs predominantly work at night, they have been known to work during the day for special details or to assist in an investigation.

"Now, we have double the coverage we had last year and it is a great resource for all of our officers to use and call out," Jones said.  

In addition to adding a new K9, the Greencastle Police Department will be providing Greencastle Schools with a school resource officer following a Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Greencastle and the Greencastle school district. 

"This is something the department has wanted to do for 20 years. We have talked about it and we have known the desire. When I became chief, it was at the top of my list of things I wanted to get done. We have people at the department who had a similar desire, and it just took getting everybody on board between the different organizations. Right now, everybody is on board and everything finally got onboard," Jones said. 

Jones said school safety has always been on his mind and he would go to bed at night worried about an incident at a school.

"The one thing you can't drop the ball on is school safety and being prepared so that in the event something did happen, you would be able to respond to it appropriately and, maybe, stop it. We know there is more we can do. This program isn't perfect, it's not exactly what we want, but it is a start and it is way better than having nothing. I feel a lot better as chief," Jones said. 

The chief said the role of the SRO will not be to make arrests or look out for children who may be doing criminal activity. 

"The school resource officer is there as a law enforcement professional to support the admin and function as a safe school. If something were to arise, they are there on the property and aware of the situation. There's about 30 years of data now about school resource officers and the data shows there are less issues. We are at a time when kids need good role models and being able to put an officer in the school that is a good person, family person and makes good decisions, to have those kinds of people in the schools is a positive," Jones said, adding he has officers who have volunteered to serve as a school resource officer.