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JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown Police Department welcomed the newest member of their team this week, a police K-9 named in memory of Kallie Swan.
Wednesday morning the department announced Officer “Kal” joined the force on Monday.
Kal is a 13-month-old all black German Shepherd who will start training in Syracuse next week.
K-9 Officer Erik Kraft tells WNYNewsNow the school is like a police training academy.
“The dog is considered a ‘green dog’ so he has very little training,” said Kraft. “I’m going to be training him along with a master K-9 trainer, and we will be going through a patrol school certified in the State of New York starting from scratch.”
Kraft says K-9 Kal is very similar to his past partner K-9 Promber who suddenly passed away last month.
“He does remind be a lot of my former partner K-9 Promber,” explained Kraft. “He is very sociable and has all the drives that I am looking for as a dual-purpose K-9 for patrol and narcotics detection.”
Kraft says in total he looked at 10 different K-9s, but Kal stuck out the most. Sometime in November Kraft and K-9 Kal will start patrol, before returning for more training in narcotics detection.
Kal is named in memory of 4-year-old Kallie Swan who passed away from Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in May 2015.
“She was a fighter, her name carries on, and to have it as a K-9 and working with our department, it like she is with us,” said Kraft.
Kallie, whose dad is a Jamestown Police Sergeant, inspired a community to “fight like a girl” against pediatric cancer in launching the non-for-profit organization Kallie’s Krusade. The “Krusade” aims to bring financial relief and community support to families stricken with childhood disease.
Before Promber, K-9 Officer Mitchell served as the city’s crime dog until he retired.
Mitchell received the prestigious Police Cross and Medal of Valor after being wounded in November 2016 while helping to apprehend a murder suspect.
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