Issue link: https://let.epubxp.com/i/286869
32 Law Enforcement Technology April 2014 www.officer.com S P E C I A L F O R C E S A s law enforcement officers we put our lives at risk all the time. The risk comes from firearms, knives, disease and anything else that could cause bodily injury or death. We risk our lives for our fellow officers and the public. We depend on each other for protection and to get the job done. If you have an assigned partner in the car, you tend to develop a greater bond with him or her. If an officer loses their life, there is an outpouring of support for the grieving family from fellow officers within and outside the agency. We honor our fallen officers by wear- ing a mourning band on our badge, lowering the flags and celebrating their life with a traditional police memo- rial service. It is a difficult thing to deal with emotionally. When it comes to a K-9 partner, we have a bond with them like no other. We don't just work a shift together, we live together. We protect our K-9 partner and they protect us. They become part of our family. When it comes to the loss of a police K-9, I feel that we should honor their service, whether that's with a traditional police memorial service or something a little more private. Recently, I was browsing a social media site I'm a member of and came across this posting on the Massachusetts State Police page. "One Last Ride" By Trooper Christopher Coscia It was a cold snowy day. Training was canceled due to the snowstorm, and I was left with the unenviable task of deciding when I should put my partner of nearly nine years to sleep. Dante was a great dog. He was a big , beautiful, black and tan shepherd. I often described him as a look-a-like for the dog in the show "Run Joe Run," for those old enough to remember that program. He had a regal look with his big head, ears and large stature. He had his own personality. Most dogs are just dogs, but you sometimes run into ones that are somehow as much human as they are dog. A Type A dog was only to be touched by those closest to him, and some- times not even by them. Dante was best described as a one-person dog , and as tough as he was for other people to get close to, our relationship never wavered. Every morning when I opened the door to his kennel he would jump up on me, wrap his paws around my waist, get his morning greeting and pat from me, storm up the stairs, and push the door open, ready to go to work. During Dante's career he was able to answer calls in towns as far west as Lee, North Adams, and Shutesbury, and calls as far east as Brighton, and even, for a few of his last successful calls, on the South Shore. Once he was able to track and locate a guy who had just murdered his girlfriend, and another time he located a cash seizure that Honoring a partner B Y S T E V E F O R G U E S A Massachusetts trooper honors his K-9 counterpart Dante, the nine-year K-9 partner of Massachusetts State Police Trooper Christopher Coscia, passed January 2. Photo courtesy of Massachusetts State Police. LET_32-33_K-9Partner.indd 32 3/20/14 9:43 AM