South Iowa News

The Ottumwa Police Department is looking to bring its K-9 patrol back.

“We've already kind of selected our dogs,” Police Lt. Jason Parmenter said at the last city council meeting. “I’ve been meeting with Tree Town kennels and Andy Klein for several weeks now, and he went through a process of selecting our canines that would be good for our city.” 

The police department is requesting the money and approval for the purchase and for the training of two new K-9 dogs, training for their handlers, additional emergency vehicle equipment and canine transportation equipment, additional officer uniforms and equipment and some other aspects of adding dogs to their department. 

Parmenter addressed city leaders at the mid-January meeting about a proposal to reinstate the law enforcement dog program.

in June 2022, Police Chief Chad Farrington presented the idea of bringing the K-9 program back. It has been years since they had a dog on the force. Since then, the police department has been fundraising and working with a local kennel to find some appropriate dogs for their force. They are not planning to add any officers to the force, just giving a K-9 partner to two officers already on the payroll. So far they have raised $38,000 for this program.

“Last Tuesday, I took the handlers up there to meet the canines to see if they would actually fit and work together,” Parmenter said. “Those dogs are a mix between a German Shepherd and Belgian Malinois.”

The mix gives handlers “the downtime of the shepherd, but you get the wanting to work of a Malinois,” he said.

The council asked a few questions about the K-9s and the program, learning that the dogs would be able to be kept on the force for around seven to nine years on average, after which the handler typically purchases and adopts the dog after the canine’s “retirement.” 

Council members also asked about funding because they heard that the department might receive some money from forfeiture funds – money that is forfeited by criminals during investigations that the department can use. The kennel that the department is working with is very respectable and has done very good work in the past with K-9s.