Founded in 2002 by Susie Jean, of Socorro, N.M., the nonprofit organization uses donations to fit police dogs with protective vests.
A vest cost more than $800. With police department budgets, including Tipp City’s, increasingly tight, Jean said the goal is to raise money to outfit as many dogs nationwide as possible.
Her work was sparked by an episode on TV’s “America’s Most Wanted,” where a K-9 dog helping to pursue an armed criminal was shot and later died. Jean said she believes a protective vest would have saved the dog’s life. Since then she has raised money to outfit more than 470 police dogs in 38 states. Adkins said he contacted Jean after reading about her work in 2009 in Parade magazine.
“She works nonstop raising money to fit dogs across the country,” he said. “Susie involves herself in very aspect of the process.”
She sent him fitting instructions, ordered the vest and processed all paperwork. On the day the vest arrived, she was on the phone, making sure the vest fit Gitta correctly.
“Susie is excited about her work and enjoys every minute of it,” Adkins said.
Gitta will wear the vest when tracking suspects from violent crimes. She does not wear it on narcotics sniffs or tracks of non-violent offenders because of the vest’s weight and the warmth of the vest in warmer conditions, Adkins said.
“Gitta’s reaction to the vest has been that of newness, just like anything you introduce to a K-9,” he said. “It takes training with it, and making the K-9 familiar with the equipment. Gitta has done good with it in training situations.”
As of December, Gitta had six successful tracks out of 18 attempts and 47 positive alerts with positive contraband finds out of 93 sniffs. She was certified as a police service dog in November 2008.
Jean said she has about 55 dogs in nine states on the vests waiting list. In Ohio, 11 departments have received vests through the program.
For more information on the vest project, including how to make a donation, visit www.vestnpdp.com.
Contact this reporter at nancykburr@aol.com.
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