SHREWSBURY – The latest member of the Shrewsbury Police Department has four paws, a tail and big, floppy ears.
Blue, a 16-week-old mini goldendoodle, is the town’s new comfort dog. Blue arrived in town several weeks ago, and Shrewsbury Police Department officials hope she can be introduced to – and start helping – the community soon. Officer Alicia Brownell is the dog’s handler and will take care of Blue outside of work.
“I think [Blue] will be good to assist the community. If we have a tragic event, we can bring the dog out to comfort people, bring down people’s stress levels. It’s good for it to be assigned to the school resource officer as well, so the dog can assist any children if they’re going through difficult times,” Police Chief Kevin Anderson told the Community Advocate.
The name Blue was chosen from a survey of Shrewsbury officers, but the name was originally the favorite of both Brownell and Anderson. While the name “Blue” represents the color associated with police, there’s more to the name than that, the Shrewsbury Police Department said.
“My thought process for the name Blue was, obviously, the color blue represents police, but also the dog is going to assist people that are feeling blue. Maybe they need some comforting, or something to bring up their mood. These dogs are known to lower blood pressure, decrease stress and help people with PTSD. It will help the entire community,” said Anderson.
When the Community Advocate saw Blue, she was about the size of a shoebox and still learning how to go down stairs. However, the Shrewsbury Police Department expects her to grow to about knee-high height and reach 40 or 50 pounds. She’ll undergo four six-week blocks of training before she’s fully certified, including basic puppy training, “canine good citizen” training, therapy dog instruction, and socialization and environmental exposure training.
Blue will be able to meet community members while she’s in the process of training, Brownell and Anderson said.
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Aside from being oh-so-cute and interacting with the community, Blue will serve many different functions for the department. Blue can help comfort people during investigations that may involve families or child victims. If the town has a tragic incident, Blue could step in and offer support to community members. The dog will also help comfort first responders.
As an officer involved with the Critical Incident Stress Management Team for Central Massachusetts (CISM) – a resource that helps first responders debrief and talk about critical incidents afterward in an effort to help them recover from traumatic incidents – Brownell hopes to utilize Blue to provide comfort and stress relief to personnel who may be going through a difficult time.
“If a department has a critical incident … the administration would ask officers if they’d like to speak to peer support members like myself and others. That goes to the Critical Incident Stress Management Team. We go there and we debrief them and talk about the incident. It’s been proven scientifically that talking about traumatic stress might alleviate mental health issues,” said Brownell.
As a school resource officer, Brownell said she’s also anticipating lots of interest from students.
“They already caught wind of it. They’re getting ready to get passes and see her already. She’ll be a good tool for them,” she said.
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