SIMI VALLEY : Police to Ask for an Additional Dog

Hoping for more four-legged help in quelling teen-age beer blasts and impressing schoolchildren, Simi Valley police plan to ask the City Council tonight for money to buy a third police dog.

An extra dog would put two canine units on duty weekend nights and allow more flexibility in planning for public shows by the dogs and the officers who handle them, Capt. Jerome Boyce said.

The department is asking for $28,450 in city funds to add to $10,650 in existing donations to buy the dog, a special patrol car and equipment. It also wants the city’s approval to spend $13,000 a year on gasoline, food, veterinary bills and other supplies to support the extra dog. A third handler would be taken from the existing patrol staff.

Boyce said the extra patrol car is necessary because canine teams must travel full-time in their own cruisers.

Now, police dogs Charly and Max and their handlers are on duty only one at a time, six nights a week, although they are on call 24 hours a day, Boyce said.

Buying a third dog would put a canine team on duty every night--two on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, he said.

The extra dog would be helpful on weekend nights, he said. Last year, the department sent canine units to break up 310 large parties.

“We have party calls two or three times every weekend, and it can quickly get out of hand because of the liquor and the age group you’re dealing with,” Boyce said.

“It’s nice when you have only five or six officers out there and 200 to 300 kids,” he added. “The dogs seem to bring them to sobriety real quick.”