Police Dogs Bark Up the Right Tree

Kerry Anderson stood menacingly on the lawn, waving a stick and wearing a thick, padded sleeve on his left arm.

Officer John Hall kept his 4-year-old rottweiler, a female named Liberty, at bay. She stayed at his side impatiently, her muscles tensed in anticipation of the command to attack. Finally, it came.

“Get him!” Hall said.

Liberty raced across the lawn and leaped, a 95-pound cannonball of muscle, fur and teeth. The burly Anderson, almost knocked to the ground on impact, tried to shake off the jaws that clamped his sleeve like spiked handcuffs.

“Liberty, off!” Hall commanded.

Reluctantly, Liberty let go and trotted back to her handler. She knew, of course, that Officer Anderson was really one of the boys; this was just a demonstration, and biting anywhere but the sleeve was a no-no.

Liberty is one of 15 canine members of the Los Angeles Police Department’s K-9 Unit, which for the last eight years has been giving new meaning to the slogan: “Take a Bite Out of Crime.”

Since 1980, when approval was given to train two search dogs for a pilot program, the K-9 Unit has grown steadily in size and status, gaining recognition as an important arm of law enforcement.

What is unusual about the LAPD’s K-9 Unit is that all dogs are bought with private contributions. Los Angeles is one of the few cities in the country not paying for its own police dogs, which cost about $2,500 each.

Instead, the money is raised by the West Los Angeles Boosters Assn., a group of business and professional donors formed in 1972 to sponsor youth programs. The group became involved in the police dog program in 1980 after hearing that the city would not finance the purchase of dogs.

Regular Donors

Based in the West Los Angeles area police station at 1663 Butler Ave., the association has 260 members, most from the Westside, who donate $25, $50 or $100 a year to support youth programs and to buy dogs.

Boosters President Harriet Moffat, 80, has always been a dog lover. She reminisced about police dogs that have come and gone over the years as if they were her grandchildren, boasting of their talents and grieving at their passing.

A rottweiler named Jake would push people aside at the water fountain to get a drink, pushing the button with his paw. “People couldn’t believe it,” she said.

If somebody was using the office change machine, Jake would look at him with imploring eyes. Then he would stand next to the cookie machine, his expression dead serious.

“People knew they weren’t supposed to give him anything,” Moffat said. “But they did.”

Dogs From Germany

Last November, Moffat accompanied the head trainer of the K-9 Unit, Donn Yarnall, to West Germany, where the unit buys most of its dogs because of the quality breeding and comparatively low prices.

Moffat learned to speak some German, which proved useful with dogs that understood nothing else.

“When a new dog comes in, I say, ‘Oh, liebchen ,’ which means ‘darling’ in German, and he comes right over and kisses me,” she said. “I get my face washed every time I see one.”

Moffat remembers dogs that lost their lives in the line of duty.

Richter was a rookie, a 3-year-old German shepherd that had been on the force only a few months. He was stabbed to death a year ago by a burglar he had located inside a warehouse. Richter kept attacking even as he sustained the fatal wounds.

Fatal Leap

Six years before, a dog named Rooster fell seven stories to his death while searching a rooftop. Wanting to look on the other side of an air-conditioning unit, the dog jumped over a low wall that, in fact, was the edge of the roof.

But danger comes with the turf for K-9 teams, which are deployed only for felonies or misdemeanors involving a gun. They are dispatched to situations in which a suspect has eluded police on foot or is known to be hiding in the vicinity.

In selecting dogs for the unit, Bonneau said, character and temperament are carefully considered, and dogs that are too vicious are rejected.