Several of the City of Madison's K9 teams were recognized with state awards at the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Canine Handler Association's(WLECHA) annual working conference. In all, five teams were nominated for awards and three teams were selected as winners in their respective categories.
Officer Teresa McKenzie and her K9 partner, Josh, were awarded the Meritorious K9 Narcotics Find of the Year. Officer McKenzie and Josh were sent to a mutual aid request for the Maple Bluff Police Department to assist with a traffic stop. K9 Josh alerted on a small box hidden in the engine compartment of the vehicle. Illegal drugs and other items were recovered, which lead to a search warrant at the suspect's residence. A large amount of illegal drugs were recovered from the home. This interdertiction and Josh's excellent work lead directly to Maple Bluff Police pursuing a K9 for their jurisdiction. The details of this case are accessible via this link /police/blog/documents/mckenzie15.pdf
Officer Carren Corcoran with her partner K9 Slim and Officer Rose Mansavage with K9 Falko each tracked suspects on seperate robbery cases. As it turned out, they were related. The suspect, a former Wisconsin Badger football standout and his brother, robbed these businesses on different days. Both businesses were located downtown where there is a high volume of pedestrian and vehicle traffic. Both officers used scent articles from the scene to track the unknown suspects. Both tracks provided key evidence that provided a crucial break to identifying these suspects. This case highlights these amazing dogs capabilities when tracking people. Both were awarded the Meritorious K9 Tracks of the Year for their efforts. To read the details of this case, please click here /police/blog/documents/mancorc15.pdf
Officer Jim Donnell and K9 Krahnie were nominated for the Meritorious K9 Track of the Year with Apprehension for locating and taking a suspect into custody that had committed 10 robberies in the Chicago and Madison area. The robber was so prolific he was dubbed "The Play-Along Bandit". To read more about this incredible call, please view this link /police/blog/documents/donnell15.pdf
Last, but certainly not least, Officer Nick Eull and K9 Frees were nominated for the Rookie K9 Handler of the Year. Officer Eull and Frees are already a terrific team that work our night shift. To read Officer Eull's nomination, please click here /police/blog/documents/WLECHA%20Rookie%20Eull%202015.pdf
For more information about our K9 teams, please check out our website https://www.cityofmadison.com/police/field/k9/. Another great source of information is our non-profit, Capital K9s, which provides all the funding for our unit. You can find them at http://capitalk9s.org/ and on Facebook.