K-9: A Deputy’s Best Friend

This dog speaks Dutch and a little English too. He is uber alert and misses nothing. Even the suspects know better than try to outrun a dog that can do 20 to 30 miles in short spurts.

Multnomah County Deputy Todd Weber remembers the night as if it had just happened. He can provide remarkable details from that event thirteen years ago. He made a traffic stop at 2:30 a.m. He did a background check based on the license plate of the car. Immediately the passenger opened the door and made a run for it. The male passenger had an outstanding warrant which is plenty of reason for him to bolt from the car. Along Deputy Weber immediately called for backup since the driver was still in the car. What came next as part of his call for backup was to change his professional career. An officer showed up with a K-9 and within minutes the Drago had the passenger cornered. Although not visible to the deputies the criminal was hidden only two yards away.

After that demonstration Deputy Weber made a decision that he wanted to be a K-9 Officer. Early on the County decided to raise their K-9 dogs from pups. That attempt failed for Deputy Weber but he was not easily discouraged. His current K-9 German Shepherd, who is five years old, comes from the Netherlands. Rangers’ commands are in Dutch although he appears to be bilingual and understands some English words. The dogs like their deputies are highly trained and spend hundreds of hours in training with other K-9 units from other agencies. For master trainers they will spend 400 hours, 10 weeks in a row. Each dog is valued at between $9 and $10,000. The dog’s personalities are matched to that of the deputies.

Greg Dirks, Wood Village city employee is on the business end while Ranger takes him down. Training early on can be as much as 400 hours with their deputies.

One of the reasons suspects are prone to cooperate with deputies is the ability of the K-9 to get their full and undivided attention.

The County has two different types of K-9 dogs. One is for tracking, article search, apprehension, building search, tracking suspects, locating lost people and to protect his handler. The other version is the drug dog which has an amazing ability to ferret out hidden drugs. The County has two drug dogs, Gunner a Springer Spaniel two year olds and Spencer a German Shepherd who is seven years old. Typically the dogs are retired after 9 to 10 years of service. Varro and all black German Shepherd was Deputy Weber’s’ working partner for nine years. He is now retired living the good life with Weber’s family.

The dogs are with the deputies’ 24 hours a day and are kenneled at their homes. The bonding that takes place between the dog and the officer provides an atmosphere of trust and loyalty with the result of higher performance.

The day I did this interview, Ranger ran into the woods and did a capture.

We applaud the devotion of these highly trained deputies and their loyal and devoted dogs to provide protection for our communities. These amazing animals have proved invaluable in tracking suspects and apprehending them.
Thanks go to Deputy Todd Weber and Ranger for making our families a little more secure.

Stats for Ranger from 2014 to present:
Calls for service 130
Captures/Finds 12
Assisted Apprehensions 16