LA CROSSE, Wis. (WEAU) – The La Crosse Police Department has a K9 unit that consists of four service dogs. Police Chief Shawn Kudron says each one is capable of handling many different kinds of assignments.
“Apprehension could be one thing that they do. The vast majority of their work is in narcotics detection. Whether that’s a traffic stop or some other area where narcotics might be placed. Depending on the work that the officer is doing at the time, a K9 can be called to the scene to assist with that,” says Kudron.
K9 units are required to be trained at least 16 hours per month.
“We try to have a well-rounded training regiment, which includes narcotics detection. We do a lot of the suspect apprehension stuff because it’s very important we have that trained well because when that time comes and we use them, we want to make sure they’re doing it as trained. We train in various other things like obedience. We want to have a very obedient dog,” says Aaron Westpfahl.
One of the department’s service dogs, Loki, passed away unexpectedly last November. His handler, Aaron Westpfahl says Loki was heavily relied on for his narcotics detection, but that’s not all he was able to do.
“We also used him for tracking both suspects and missing persons such as the elderly or a missing child. He had a really good temperament, so it was good to have him as part of the team,” says Westpfahl.
The La Crosse Police Department says while losing Loki is tough, the K9 unit is still going strong as an added resource for both the department and the community.
“When we are out there to serve and protect the community, those K9s can be trained to assist us. They’re of great assistance. We have had a long history of having K9s here. They have helped with our service to the community, and we hope to be able to continue that,” says Kudron.
According to La Crosse Police, K9 Loki had a total of 341 detection deployments in 2024.
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