On June 30 a canine unit graduation ceremony was held at Ledyard High School for four Connecticut policeman and their tail-wagging partners.
Among the four was Ledyard police officer Bobby Kempke and his partner, the newest member of the force, Lambeau. Kempke and Lambeau, along with Stonington police Officer Greg Howard and canine Fritz, Waterbury police Officer Mike Stone and his dog Oscar, and Vernon police Officer Chris Hunt and Narco, trained for thee months, beginning on April 1, with Ledyard Police Sgt. Michael Ravenelle, who started Ledyard’s canine unit in 1991 and is now a master trainer. Ledyard police Lt. Mike Finkelstein described how the whole program was put into action.
“We realized we had the need to put another canine through training,” Finkelstein said. “At the same time we had been working with Stonington for quite a while to try and get their program up and running because they didn’t have a canine before, and through the canine community of trainers and handlers we learned that their were other communities looking to have canine training, so at that point we decided we would host training and allow those other towns to come in and train with us…we’re lucky we have two master trainers in our department.”
The training was intense, as all officers and their dogs trained an average of more than 40 hours a week, not including the countless hours spent off the clock going over any specific issues that might have needed additional work. But now with the graduation ceremony complete, all four teams are ready for the job.
The addition of Kempke and Lambeau now brings the Ledyard department to two units, as the fresh graduates join Officer Dan Gagnon and Ringo. For Stonington, the addition of Howard and Fritz brings an entirely new element to the town’s police force.
Finkelstein explained, “The addition of another canine is beneficial for Ledyard,” Finkelstein said. “A young handler with a young dog out there being proactive is definitely going to be a benefit to the town.
“A perfect example of this is Stonington,” Finkelstein continued. “The first shift on the road with their canine unit got a find for them. They’ve never had a dog in the history of their department and they got a call about domestic violence and the guy runs off into the woods and hides and their dog found him. If they didn’t have the advantage of a canine, they could have ran into a much more dangerous situation. Having that canine, and solely having that canine, gave them the ability to immediately apprehend the guy and solve the crime.”