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Three members of the Chino Police Department’s K9 unit will soon be safer when they’re on duty, thanks to a $12,000 donation made by Threshold Aviation at Chino Airport.
The money will be used to buy bulletproof vests for the department’s two Belgian Malinois’s and one Dutch Shepherd at a cost of $3,800 each, said Sgt. Steve Beckman, the department’s K9 supervisor.
The department has a fourth dog, a bloodhound, that tracks suspects but is never put in harms way.
“We had a K9 vest a long time, but it was heavy and bulky,” Beckman said. “It weighed 50 pounds, and it put such a strain on the dog they couldn’t work for very long.”
Mark DiLullo, Threshold’s chief executive officer, decided to make the donation after speaking with Lou Desmond, the company’s public relations counsel.
Desmond, founder and co-owner of Desmond & Louis, Inc., does pro bono work for the National Police Dog Foundation. He recently attended the foundation’s annual event that honors police dogs who died in the line of duty during the previous year.
“A lot of police departments, even the large ones, don’t have enough to pay for their canines,” Desmond said. “They cost $40,000 to $50,000 to train, they have to be cared for and fed, and they need special equipment like bulletproof vests.
“But they also play a vital role in saving police officers lives or keep them from being injured. They go into situations that are too dangerous for the officers.”
All that’s left now is for the dogs to be fitted for their vests, which will happen as soon as the department receives the measurement chart.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve has a donation generous enough to by such an expensive item,” Beckman said. “The vests give our K9 officers the same level of protection our officers have, so it helps our officers, and it helps public safety.”
